Into My Hands, You lay
by Godric0Gryffindor
Summary: The Kingdom is overthrown, Philip's home Ulstead faces possible war, and Diavel thinks Maleficent is hiding something from him. What's a young Queen to do? Aurora and Maleficent story. Summary will eventually be better. No Malora, just to be clear. P.S. I suck at updating but I'm going to finish the story.
1. Chapter 1

Hey so I use to be on FF a few years ago and made a new account, so I'm not new to by any means, but it's been a hot ass minute since I've uploaded a story on here. I had this idea in my head after seeing the second movie and decided to write it out and I was like bitch why not upload it to FanFiction and show the world my horrible, cringey and shitty story? So here it is I sincerely hope you enjoy.

~Gryffindor

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Aurora looked out to the beautiful forest that was the Moors, dangling her legs off of the castle balcony. The sun set over the horizon in the distance, rays of light shinning onto the red and yellow leaves. It was truly a sight to behold. Fall was one of Aurora's favorite seasons because of how pretty the trees all looked when their leaves changed color. She sometimes wondered about what color her leaves would change if she was a tree. '_Being a tree would be wonderful!_' thought Aurora. She would stand tall and proud in the sky and be a home for birds to nest in and and raise their fletchings. That would be a far better life than the one she had. Being Queen was the worst job in the world and Aurora simply couldn't understand why people would want to be a monarch. She was forced to reside in the castle and only allowed to set foot outside in the gardens, and even then Aurora was escorted by her personal guards.

Every day, the Kingdom's people presented new problems to Aurora and most of them wouldn't get resolved in the first day as it would take weeks, some of them months, for requests to be processed in the castle. Then, there was The Council that would call for meetings at least three times a week. The Council to Aurora seemed like a waste of time since they never got anything done and argued amongst themselves for hours back and forth. If you asked Aurora what the worst part about being royal was, she would tell you that it was the amount of rules she had to follow and was expected to know. Being as she was now Queen, Aurora was expected to have only the most elegant and proper of manners; however, Aurora grew up in a small cottage outside the kingdom being raised by her three aunties who turned out to be fairies. It also didn't help the fact that Aurora didn't meet another human until she was sixteen years old when she had met Prince didn't understand human customs and manners that people inside the kingdom did. She practiced walking "with grace, as a Queen would," so her etiquette teacher would tell her. Aurora practiced her table manners which had gotten better over time, but the amount of silverware on the table didn't make any sense to her. There were far too many forks, spoons and knives to remember what each and every piece of silverware was used for.

Aurora absolutely hated and despised life inside the castle. She couldn't be herself, couldn't live like this for much longer as this style was pushing her to her breaking point. Aurora longed to be back in the Moors with her godmother and fairy friends, longed to run through the forest barefoot and play in the river throwing mud at the wallerbogs. Aurora was of course allowed to visit her former home, but these visits were rare due to the kingdom's issues. The citizens needed her attention at once as soon as their was a problem presented to the castle. Indeed, it had been quite some time since Aurora had last seen Maleficent and spent time in the Moors. That's why Aurora spent as much of her time as she could outside on her bedroom balcony over looking the magnificent forest. If she closed her eyes in complete silence and listened to only the wind blowing against the the trees, she felt like she was back at home ion the Moors where she belonged.

Aurora opened her blue eyes and and sighed again, feeling a cold Fall breeze chill her some. As always. Aurora was back at the castle making her remember how alone she felt inside the castle's stone walls. She had only Prince Philip for comfort and it made the young Queen's ruling easier as Philip could guide her through royal life life since he had lived it his whole life. Aurora found herself in love with Philip even more after every one of his visits, and when he was gone Aurora would Aurora would dread being inside the castle. She had tried making friends with some of her servants, but they were forbidden from having any relationship with the royal family and Aurora had soon come to realize that the one's who dared to overstep their boundaries were not seen anywhere in the castle. Aurora surmised that the servants who accepted her friendship and acted friendly with her had most likely been relived of their duties. and after a good amount of servants had been fired the ones who remained grew to understand their place and only spoke to their queen when it was necessary. In fact, the servants had grown almost as quiet as the knights that roamed through the hallways and stood guarding important was away at his home kingdom taking care of his people and aiding his father in any way he could as the King asked for him personally. It had meant a great deal to him that his father asked for his help and she knew how important this matter was to him.

"It's a big honor, a _privilege_ to be able to aid father with his Kingly duties." Philip had told her. Aurora smiled up at him as he spoke, taking his hands in hers.

"Go then. I shall be waiting for you back here eagerly." she said.

"aurora, I fear this time will be a long wait for you. Father has told me that one of the residing Kingdoms may want a war with us. I wouldn't blame you if you were to be upset with me for being gone for so long." Aurora could hear the fear and worry in his voice telling her that the words he spoke were true.

"I would have no right to be upset with you. It would be unfair of me to be mad at you for being away while your Kingdom faces possible war. Seeing as how you've waited for me as I spent hours in the Councilmen Chambers." he kissed her cheek. "

Very well then," he said said smiling at her. "I shall return to you as soon as possible and waste no time." They both kissed each other deeply feeling the love for the other. "aurora?" Philip asked.

"Yes?" they had not let go of each other's hands. "Thank you for being so understanding." he bowed.

"You're very welcome, Prince Philip." she said, bowing to him as well. "I mean it though, come back as soon as you can."

"Of course, I shall make it my highest priority." Philip said.

The two had spent some time talking to each other about this the minute the King's letter had been read by both of them. Aurora knew Philip would have to go even if he refused to do so because his father would most likely send for his men to come and collect him. She missed him so much, almost as much as she missed the Moors. Her heart was torn between Maleficent, Diaval, Philip and the Moors. She had never before in her life felt more lost and alone than now. It had been nearly four months since Philip had left and even longer since she had visited her godmother, so long in fact that Aurora had lost count of the months. She would write to Maleficent almost every day though, as well as Diaval and Philip and had been getting an immediate response from her godmother. Maleficent would Diaval in his bird form to deliver her and Aurora's letters to each other and Aurora looked forward to his visits every time he came. But, Diaval was in his Raven form and unable to converse with her, he could only caw at her or nod his head to show he was smiled as she thought of her family. All the things that made her happy helped Aurora to stay sane and not lose her temper with someone inside the castle. Even when Aurora did lose her temper with someone it was nothing more than a simple raise of her voice or eye roll which did not threaten her servants at all.

Aurora turned around and walked back inside of her bedroom. It was a humongous room with too much furniture and took way too much space than Aurora needed. To put it simple, Aurora hated everything about her new life that claimed her and she was ready to run away from the kingdom and live in the Moors once again, where she wouldn't have to worry farmers cattle being killed by wolves and the many trade routes that had bandits hiding out waiting for someone to rob. Aurora moved to her bed and laid down on the wool cover staring up at the ceiling. Not even a second later, Aurora heard a knock on the door and sighed heavily closing her eyes. "Enter." she said. Pardon me my Queen, but I was told to inform you that your dinner is ready for you." a maiden said.

"No thank you." Aurora said, rolling over to her side facing away from the door.

"Very well, your majesty. Shall I bring a plate up to you should you get hungry for later?"

"That would be lovely." Aurora replied not looking at her. She felt bad for being rude to one of her maiden's as soon as she heard the door close. Sighing for the thousandth time that day, Aurora slipped under her woolly sheets and closed her eyes.

"Now, when you go into the Councilmen Chambers remember to- walk with the grace of a queen, I remember." Aurora said interrupting Lady Agatha, her etiquette trainer.

"A lady _also_ remember to hold her tongue and to _NOT_ interrupt others while they speak!"

"Forgive me, Lady Agatha." Aurora resisted a strong urge to roll her eyes at the older woman's words. She had trained Aurora in the "Art of Elegance," as Agatha would call it, since Aurora had stepped foot inside the castle. The two had spent hours together going over her manners and learning how to act properly. It was overwhelming for Aurora to go over all of the rules she had to follow, she felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest! "Remember Aurora," Agatha said, using her first name to speak to the young Queen which she only ever called Aurora by her first name when it was important. "While you may be Queen of the land, the Councilmen have been apart of ruling the Kingdom since your father was crowned, some even before then. They will not take you as seriously since you are a woman as well, but do not forget that are _their Queen._ Choose your words carefully, _remember your words, _and do not allow them to overshadow you." Agatha said. Aurora thanked her as politely as she could in her annoyance at the Council and stepped into the room as the guards opened the doors for her. All members of the Council stood up and bowed to Aurora as they greeted her. "My Queen," they said greeting her.

"Thank you for inviting me." Aurora said, taking a seat at the head of the table. The room was dimly lit with candles on the table and from torches over the walls where paintings of previous Kings and Queens hung. Except for the two guards that stood on either side of the door,there were six men seated at a wooden table decorated with various parchment that recorded statistics of the Kingdom, it's citizens, knights, trade routes, requests for materials from other Kingdoms, thought the room looked like a creepy cult meeting. "Queen Aurora, we're so very pleased you could join us for a last minute meeting." said one of the Council members. '_As if I had a choice,_' Aurora thought. "I hope we haven't disturbed any plan you might've had for this evening." another Council member added.

"Not at all, Councilmen. I appreciate your concerns with my personal life, but I haven't any plans for the evening." Aurora responded.

_"Not surprised."_ she heard one of the Councilmen whisper to another but she pretended as if she hadn't heard them.

"Well," another member said, clearing his throat and hoping to move past what everyone had clearly just heard, "Queen Aurora, we decided to hold a meeting tonight in hopes to resolve an issue we have had since you took the throne." Aurora felt her heart sink. '_Not again_,' she thought to herself turning her attention to the man sitting on her right, the kindest of the six, Councilmen Boreman. Out of all the members, Aurora respected Boreman the most given he was not as harsh as the other five members were and was more inclined to express concern about the citizens of the Kingdom rather than their gold. "What issue might that be, Councilmen?" Aurora asked, cocking her head to the side and knowing full well that was brought here because the council was going to try and sway Aurora into taking the Moors.

"Well," another member, Windsor said looking from Aurora to Boreman then back to her again, "we believe that we have come up with a solution to our current problem regarding the Moors." Aurora cocked her head to the side with a bemused expression on her face. "Did you now? I wasn't aware that there _was_ a problem."

"Not yet at least." Councilmen Farely said vehemently. Farely was the last man Aurora knew that would be willing to make peace with the Moors. She knew that no sooner would he shake hands with the fare folk than Maleficent would shake hands with her father had he been alive. "Yes, well as Councilmen Windsor just said Queen Aurora, we believe we have come up with an idea that would please both you and the Council." said Northcott, the eldest of the Council, leaning his elbows on the table and folding his hands together.

"Do explain." Aurora said. She couldn't wait to hear what the Council had come up with, hopeful that perhaps they may have finally let go of their prejudices against the fare folk.

"Yes, you see we realize how much you care for the creatures of the Moors," Farely said, putting emphasis on the creatures part he had said. '_Well, maybe most of the Council is ready to move past their differences with the fare folk_,' Aurora thought.

"And we wouldn't want to put a damper on your relationship with the fare folk." Boreman said, quickly holding up his hand s and cutting off Farely before he could start an argument.

"You see we have decided top propose a temporary between our kingdom and the Moors." Windsor said stroking his black beard.

"What do you mean by _temporary_?" Aurora asked, scrunching her face up in confusion.

"Well, we cannot be certain that the Moors will prove to be an asset to us." said Northcott.

"Because of this, we will decide whether or not if the Moors can even be trusted to trade with us, given that they don't tear off our arms." Farely said, smirking lightly and brushing back his bleach blond hair,

"Mind your tongue, Councilmen Farely." Aurora said glaring her icy, blue eyes at his emerald green ones.

"Well, it is something to be aware of," Farely went on adding, "I mean if we are going to be sending our troops out the mysterious Moors, we must be aware of the beasts that lay within them."

"They're not _beasts_!" Aurora said, truing to keep as calm as a Queen could. She couldn't lose her temper and yell at the Council as she once had, it wasn't _ladylike_, as Agatha had told her. The Council could deem Aurora too childish too oversee Councilmen meetings and would surely report their misgivings to Agatha who would double up on Aurora's lessons until she saw Aurora fit to attend another meeting. "They're not man-killing creatures like you think they are Councilmen Farley, and I think it unfair that you could judge another race you've never interacted with." Aurora said, keeping her face as calm as she possibly could.

"Yes, well, you see- _furthermore,"_ Aurora interrupted him, "I would appreciate it in the future if you would not call the people of the Moors _beasts_ or _creatures_."

"Yes, well that's just it isn't then?" Farely said, crossings his arms. "They're not _people_."

"Enough, Farely." came the cool, calm voice of Ainsley, the quietest of the Council. "I see no reason for us to not trust that Queen Aurora will ensure a safe trade between our Kingdom and the Moors; however, I understand your concerns for our men." he turned from Farely's cold face to look at Auroras. "We have gone to war with before, and have lost many men to the... guardians, as you call them. Can you convince the moor-folk to not attack our men?" asked Ainsley. Aurora thought the question was a little unfair to ask, given that the Moors haven't attacked any humans since before her father was King and that the kingdom had been planning to attack the Moors under Stephan's rule. Well, then again Maleficent had attacked Stephan and turned Diaval into a fire-breathing dragon a scorched nearly fifteen soldiers...

"As long as you can ensure that no harm will come to the Moors and it's people." Aurora said, anxiously. There was silence among the table for a minute as the Council members all looked at each other, some nodding and others shrugging.

"Very well, we can settle on trading with the fairies."

Windsor said. Aurora thought for a moment before saying, "W-Well, I'd have to speak with god-mother about this and make sure she would willing to trade with the Kingdom."

"Will there be an issue with Maleficent?" asked Northcott with a furrowed face.

"No! My godmother would never harm me!"

"No my Queen, you misunderstand me. What I mean to say is would your, _ahem_, godmother have a problem with agreeing to trade with us?"

"Oh. Uh, no she shouldn't." Aurora said, not actually sure if Maleficent would be willing trade with them.

"Very well. Tomorrow, you will go to the Moors and inform Maleficent of our proposition." said Northcott.

"Now, remind me again," Farely went on with an agitated expression on his sharp face, "why are we sending our Queen when we should be sending our knights?"

"Because no human is allowed inside the Moors." Aurora said simply.

"Really? I'm surprised, I thought your Godmother brought down her wall of thorns. "Farely said with what Aurora thought was suck a fake look of shock on his face. "Naturally, I just assumed anyone was allowed to enter the Moors. Perhaps this trade isn't such a good idea if a human can't even accompany our Queen."

"I just think that my godmother would have a better response to me if I went by myself. She knows me better and we are very close. I'm sure I'll have a much better chance of convincing my godmother if I went alone." Aurora said.

"I think we should at least accompany our Queen to the edge of the Moors to ensure her safety." Boreman said, running a large hand down his red hair.

"Yes, I second that." said Windsor folding his ancient arms across his chest. "There are still many people within the Kingdom that would see to Aurora's death given the chance."

"The safety of the Kingdom's Queen is of our highest priority. We will send the Queen to the Moors with a small army of the finest knights, along with Aurora's personal bodyguards, of course." Ainsely said tightening his black hair he put up in his ponytail.

Aurora sighed silently to herself. She knew that it was highly that the Council would allow Aurora to go out into the Kingdom by herself, but to send an army of knights with her? It wasn't as if she was going off to fight in a war; nevertheless, the Council agreed that it would be best for Aurora to go into the Moors accompanied by by her bodyguard and a few knights. Of course, they would not follow her once she made it to the forest as to not upset Maleficent and threaten her. The knights would wait for their Queen just along the outskirts of the Moors while Aurora visited with Maleficent. Aurora could barely hold her excitement when the meeting was adjourned. She ran up the sitars to her room happily laughing and smiling to herself. She was going to see her godmother and Diaval again,. For the very first time in months, Aurora felt excited for the next day.

She decided to take a hot bath before she went to bed, and sunk deeper into the the water relaxing even more as she fantasized of what she would do in the Moors tomorrow. Aurora thought about all that she had been through and done since she had last saw Maleficent, thinking about all of the changes within the Kingdom since Aurora had taken the throne. She had created new laws that protected the Moors from humans overthrowing it and had also made it illegal to place bets against animal fights, sought to expose the black market and illegal trade within the kingdom.

Most of the people were pleased with Aurora's new laws that the Kingdom less corrupted and safer for the citizens; however, a large group of people within the kingdom were not. Aurora had made sure that living the life of a criminal was impossible. Under King Stephan's rule, criminal activity was at an all-time high and in fact, Stefan had made it easy for people to commit crimes. Since he was so focused on killing Maleficent, taking over the Moors and making all available guards blacksmith's and iron workers, the people had found it quite easy commit crimes. There were hardly ever any enough guards to stop crimes and the ones that were around were bribed to forget what they saw and turn away. King Stefan himself even encouraged corruption, allowing illegal trades to take place within the Kingdom and sending his men out to guard the bandits and thugs, provided that they would pay him to protect them. Stefan even sold to the black market and bought various materials for his personal army and his own selfish gain.

But now, Aurora had cracked down on the illegal trades and had corrupted officials and guards sent to prison serving a time for their crimes. Most of the illegal traders and bandit gangs had been disbanded and Aurora had imprisoned corrupted guards, criminals, thugs, etc. There were hundreds of people that had gotten caught committing illegal activities and something had to be done about it. "The black market trade has _never_ been this low before. We're barely making enough to get by now, even with our combined gold! It's still not enough!"

"We need to do something about this girl, and tonight is the perfect to do so!"The traders have left with their armies of knights with them and they won't be back for days, I reckon a week."

"WE need to overthrow the Queen and take the castle. We cannot allow this peasant girl to continue on with her ruling! She's going to put an end to us all, you mark my word!"

"I've been saying this since day one, and I'll say it again! We this girl is going to be the reason that we're all forced to go into hiding,and look where we are!"

"If we don't do this now, then we will never be able 'ter run away should we fail. I'm not saying that I want the girl as Queen, all's I'm saying is that I don't know if it's such a great idea to attack her royal asses army. Most of us are gonna die from this fight."

"I'd rather die than be forced to live underground with the rats another day! I hope I die if we don't overthrow the Queen!" There was silence amongst the dirty crowd as everyone took in all the comments. One of them spoke up. "I can get into the the prison cells and get most of the prisoners free. We can take the castle with their help."

"Yeah, we know Thomas, your brother's a prison guard, he'll help us, he hates the Queen as much as we do, whatever. But what if the other prison guards end up killing you and your brother before you free our brothers and sisters?" interrupted another much taller and stronger man.

"Well, then that's a risk I'll have to take." Thomas said, a determined look on his boyish face.

"Just make sure you get out the right people and not a bunch of crazy lunatics." the bigger man replied.

As Aurora lay back inside her bed, she sighed and felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Tomorrow she would be seeing her godmother and she couldn't wait! Aurora grew weary as she thought of her friends in the Moors, her aunties, Maleficent and Diaval and she allowed her mind to drift off into sleep.

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And there we have it! Obviously, the next chapter will be a lot more exciting and I already have it all written out, I just have to type it and then post that. I'm not sure how often I'll be updating the story and posting new chapters, but expect chapter 2 in the next day or so.

This chapter took me days to write and I finished with 4,510 words. I know that everyone on here would rather follow and favorite, but some feedback would be greatly appreciated. Do you like how the story is going so far? Please let me know in the comments so that I can change something should I have to.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey all! Thanks for all the follows and favorites! I love the feedback I've gotten and I'm happy to present to you today. Also just wanted to make ya'll aware I have some homework to do for the weekend but I'm gonna try and write what I can for the next chapter so stay tuned! Also I realized in the last chapter I fucked up on one of the sentences so sorry about that. I'll do a better job at revising them I was just stressed and wanted to get the story up before I went to sleep.

Just so you know, this chapter is why i'm going to change the rating from T to M since it's pretty bloody. I read through it as I was writing and realized just how gory it is, so fair warning to those of you who get squeamish at this sort of stuff. Anyways lemme stfu right here so you can read the story, although I'm pretty sure no one reads the author's comments of the story. Enjoy!

~Gryffindor

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Aurora awoke so suddenly her heart beating against her chest like it was trying to escape. She could hear people screaming and metal clashing against metal from just outside her door. Something very bad was happening right now and Aurora's mind started to race. She slowly sat up in bed, eyes wide with fear as she listened to the screaming men. She jumped out of her bed, knees bent, ready to run when she heard and explosion. Or at least what she thought was an explosion._ Was it an explosion?_ Was the castle under attack? What should she do?

Aurora screamed when the door to her bedroom burst opened. "Queen Aurora! We have to leave. Now!" it was Lady Agatha dressed in slippers and her nightgown walking briskly to Aurora. Aurora caught her breath when she realized who it was and tried to calm herself. Agatha told Aurora to put on her slippers and walked over to the fireplace. Aurora grabbed the first pair of shoes she saw she had and put them on quickly. When she walked back over to Agatha, curious as to why her mentor was at the fire place and not running to the door, she stopped her movements when she realized what Agatha had done. Agatha knelt down and pushed in a small stone part of the chimney which sunk back into the wall and seconds later, the fireplace moved back into the wall and off to the side. "What is this?" Aurora asked, walking closer to what was revealed to be a dark passageway.

"It is a secret tunnel that was installed in the castle nearly two-hundreds years ago," Agatha said, grabbing a torch from the wall and lighting it in the fireplace. Agatha beckoned for Aurora to follow her inside the passageway and she followed her into the dark tunnels. "The King and Queen at the time were fearful of an attack against the castle during a war between a rival Kingdom," Agatha told Aurora as she led her down the cold passageway. "They had it created in case the castle were to be overthrown so that the royal family would have a way to escape the castle safely. It has never actually been used before, except for a few guards and knights."

"Do all guards know about this?" Aurora asked, frustrated and wondering why no one had ever told her about this secret tunnel.

"No, only a select few in the past have ever been informed of this secret. Of course, all the head maidens are told of this so that they could protect the King and Queen's family and lead them to safety." Agatha.

"But why wouldn't you tell me? Wouldn't it make sense for the Kings and Queens to know about this?" Aurora asked, rubbing her shoulders in an attempt to keep them warm.

"At the time the secret tunnels were created, the King and Queen ordered for only the most necessary to know in fear of this information leading to a possible attack. The King was afraid that if all royal family members knew about these tunnels the knowledge of this secret would get out into the Kingdom and it would travel to other Kingdoms as well. Then, the castle would have a way for an army to get into the castle quietly and assassinate the King or Queen and possibly their children."

"So only you know about these?" Aurora asked, hearing more screams and metal clanging against metal as she ventured further into the dark passageway.

"No, I know about these tunnels, the leader of the royal family guards know, and so does Councilmen Northcott, he was the one who told me of the tunnels." Agatha said, turning right and leading a shivering Aurora into a small hallway. "Now Aurora, listen to me very carefully," Agatha said, turning around to face Aurora, the fire of her torch dancing in her eyes, "we are on the first floor landing behind the statue of the knight. When I push this torch holder back, you will need to run out into the courtyards as fast as you can. D not worry about me or anyone else. Ignore all the things that you may see and do not stop running until you get into the gardens. There you should find your body guard waiting for you on the edge of the courtyards by the Kingdom. He will take you someplace safe and protect you." Agatha said, putting a wrinkly, old hand on the metal torch holder. "Are you ready?" she asked. Aurora hugged her quickly, fearful she would never see Agatha ever again. Her mentor seemed quite taken aback at first but smiled at the young Queen and hugged her back.

"I'm ready." Aurora said, pulling back from her and holding the seams of her nightgown.

"Very well. Go!" Agatha said, pulling the torch holder back and waiting for the wall to move over. When it did Aurora felt her ears burning and wasn't sure if it was from the warmth of of Agatha's torch or her own body heat. Aurora ran out into the main hall and stopped, frozen in place. she couldn't move from the sight the stood before her eyes as she surveyed the fighting. There was blood splattered across the floor, the walls, the paintings, the rug, everywhere. Her ears hurt from the sound of men getting stabbed to death with swords and shot with arrows. She saw men lying on the ground either holding their injured and broken limbs shrieking with pain, or men lying perfectly still in different positions. bathed in their own blood.

Aurora felt as if she was going to vomit when someone pushed her and told her to run and to not look back. She wasn't sure if it was Lady Agatha or one of her knights, but when she ran holding up her dress, she didn't stop to look back and see who it was. She flew down the stairs and towards the big, open doors when something hard slammed into the side of her head and she was sent flying into the cold, marble ground. Aurora felt her breath leave her and couldn't get back up again. She squeaked out in pain as she attempted to lift her head, but felt a foot step down on her back preventing her from getting up. "So, this is the Great Queen of the Moors and our Kingdom? A peasant girl with no clue on how to properly run a Kingdom." a man with s scratchy voice said, putting pressure on her head making Aurora grunt in pain.

"Uh, AH!" Aurora tried to talk but couldn't get any air into her burning lungs. "Aurora! Let her go!" Agatha yelled carrying a knights's swords that looked to heavy for her to hold but running with surprising speed for a woman of her age. The man kicked her back as she ran towards him like she was a rag doll. "N-No!" Aurora grunted, rising slowly and shaking.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure her death is quick." The man said as he walked over to Agatha's still body. Aurora managed to flip over and tried with all her might to get back up, watching helplessly as the man raised his sword in the air and brought it down to Agatha, but it never hit her. Instead, the man's sword collided with another sword, one that protected Agatha from being hit. A guard, bleeding from his leg and forehead, had begun fighting the man that almost killed Agatha and yelled at Aurora to run. Aurora felt sick again as she watched the knight split open the man's chin when he swung his sword in a slashing movement in the air. She gathered all the strength she could muster and turned around, running in an odd angle to the door. Her ankle hurt her as she walked on it, finally making it out into the courtyards. She looked around, finding none of her bodyguards and screamed loudly as a man fell in front of her from above and lie still.

Smoke was rising into the night air and Aurora noticed that one of the castle floors was on fire as she looked at the balcony from where the man had fallen. Two guards were fighting what looked to be... _prisoners?_ W_hat was__ going on?!_ She asked herself, confused and watching as the men fight each other for a moment when someone ran behind her and tackled her. "AHHHHH!" Aurora yelled, falling to the ground near the man that had fallen, blood spilling out onto the cold ground from his head, terrifying the young woman. She was turned around and Aurora tried to hit the man that was holding her down, but he grabbed her arms and held them, smiling and laughing at her struggling. "Ha, ha, ha! What's the matter, little girl?" he asked her bringing her arms down over her head. Aurora spat in his face and thrashed around around trying to get the man off of her as he wiped the spit from his face. She managed to hit his eye and almost got him off of her, but the man grabbed her again and brought her back down to the ground and punched her in the nose making Aurora shriek out in pain. Tears came to her eyes and Aurora felt something wet and riveting leak out from her nose and onto her dress. "Little BITCH!" he yelled at her, holding his eye again. Aurora opened her eyes slowly and tried to blink away the tears. He was about to hit her again when an arrow flew into the side of his head and Aurora screamed out in fear as the man fell down and on top of her, lying still.

The man had _died_ on top of her, _died_! Aurora was stricken with fear and shock as she screamed, pushing the dead man off her and running away from the castle. She didn't look at anyone or anything else, she only ran as fast and as far away as she possibly could, running for the Moors where she knew she would be safe. The knights that were supposed to be waiting for her were nowhere to be seen, she had no idea where they were and if she was being honest with herself, she didn't really care. At that moment, all Aurora wanted to do was to run as far away from the entire Kingdom as fast as she could to safety. As Aurora kept running, the screams and metal clanging had become more and more faint, and she could only hear herself panting as she ran in her dirty, bloody nightgown.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Something sharp pierced the back of Aurora's shoulder and she shrieked out in pain so loudly that she wouldn't be surprised if it woke up every person in the Kingdom. She was crying on the ground, rolling over trying to hold the back of her shoulder and withering in pain. Aurora felt herself being lifted into the air and was slammed on a bench. Her head hit the side of the wood and split on a rusty nail, blood pouring fast out from the side of her forehead. "Please, stop!" Aurora cried out from the ground as she looked up at her attacker, holding her head. "I'll do anything you want, ju-AH!" she yelled as a fist came colliding against her lip and cut across her teeth.

"Thanks to you, the black market is dead." the man spoke. "My family had little gold to come by. My daughter was caught stealing food for her family and was thrown into jail because of your harsh laws." Aurora spat out blood trying not to cry in pain and breathing very fast as she looked at him.

"Tell me your daughter's name! I would never allow a person to be jailed because they were simply hungry! I promise you," she said looking up at the man with bloody eyes, "I'll get your daughter out of prison for you. I'll even give your family gold!" The man had a sad look on his face as he watched the blood pour out on the stone ground below.

"You can't. My son tried to break her out of the prison and was murdered in cold blood by a guard. My daughter watched in horror and tried to fight back only to have an arrow sent to her eye, killing her. Both of my children are _dead!_ And it's all because of _you_!" he said, kicking her in the side and making her cough. "Tonight, we take what's rightfully ours. And you shall suffer years of torment!" he yelled out, kicking her again making her cry. The Moors were so far away, there was no way Aurora would be able to out run the man. She cried as she thought of her godmother, knowing that she would never get the chance to tell her how much she meant to her. '_Godmother,_' Aurora thought feeling pain all around her body and blood continuing to seep down her face. "Now," the man said, "you are going to know what true pain is." He brought his sword down to her head and Aurora closed her eyes, knowing what was going to come next.

A few moments went by, and Aurora opened her eyes, wondering why the man never striked her with his long sword; and then, Aurora felt splatters of blood onto her face as another sword was sent straight through the man's chest. She stood on her knees, mouth open in horror as she watched tears from the mans eyes pour out and onto the ground beneath him as he fell to the stone ground lying still.

A knight stood there panting, waving at a shocked and horror stricken Aurora to run away from the castle. "Go," he said, turning back around. "I'll hold them off as long as I can." Aurora blinked, not sure how to thank him and decided to leave him be, sprinting away. Her mind raced as her legs carried her to the edge of the woods and Aurora paid no attention to the thorns that scrapped against her legs and face as she ran further, deep into the forest. Her vision was growing blurry, she was breathing out of her mouth and Aurora could feel her head move in all sorts of directions.

Aurora thought about what the man had told her, about how two innocent children were murdered because they were hungry. Children, _two children_ were _killed_ because of the laws she passed. Aurora feared that she had turned just as cold and unforgiving as her father. What would Maleficent do if she told her? Would she even be welcomed back into the Moors? Would Maleficent ban her from the forest if she had known that two children were killed because of the anti-thievery laws she had passed?

She fell down a few times and used the trees to get back up and continue on. Aurora felt loopy and almost crazy as she kept on walking trying to get away from all the fighting. She had never before felt this terror in all her life. Aurora's nightgown was ripped to the point that she no longer had to hold her gown up as it came down to her knees now, more of a garment and splattered with blood.

_How long have I been walking_? she thought, moving more than walking. She had no idea what time it was and could see her breath coming out of her nose and mouth as she breathed. Aurora felt sick, her legs were shaking, she could feel her stomach turning over and yet she continued to walk on into the woods. Aurora wondered if she should turn around and go back to the castle and accept her fate. Maybe she should be killed, it was her fault that all these men had died tonight and her fault that two children were killed. '_What if there were more children that were killed because of me_?' thought Aurora, feeling more tears slide down her cheeks as she looked down at her feet.

Eventually, the young Queen found she could no longer walk as her legs grew shakey and would no longer carry her, so she started crawling on all fours. Aurora cried out into the night, fearful of how her godmother would surely ban her from the Moors now that she was as corrupted as Stefan. She had become the very thing that she swore to her godmother she never would be. Aurora had failed Maleficent. "Godmother," Aurora whispered as she cried, "forgive me." Her hands grabbed out at tree roots and sticks, holding on to them for dear life as the world around her began to spin.

* * *

The guardian heard leaves crunching and and twigs snapping on the ground. It was too loud and sloppy for it to be an animal. He narrowed his eyes, walking towards the noise and investigating what was making the commotion. That was when he found Aurora, bloody and covered in dirt, limping around and falling to the earth as she began to crawl. He walked over to her slowly, careful not to spook his Queen and gathered her up in his arms as she laid there unmoving, arms spread out. He carried Aurora into the Moors and ignored the many gasps and stares from the fare folk and started searching for Maleficent.

As the creatures watched their Queen being carried into the forest, word began to spread around of the Queen of the Moors being injured and bloody and possibly dead. All these words traveled into the dark night and into the pointy ears of Maleficent, who was standing out on a tree overlooking the Moors. She jumped down and spread her wings, soaring over to the voices and they grew louder as she flew closer. Maleficent landed onto the earth with a loud _thud_ and watched as the guardian turned around facing her and stopped dead in her tracks. Aurora was in his arms, being carried over to her and yet it didn't even look like her. She was covered in blood and dirt and her nightgown was ripped revealing scrapped knees. Maleficent hid her anger and fear for the girl as she took Aurora in her arms and looked down onto her bloody face. She assured all the fare folk that their Queen would be fine and she spread her wings once more and flew away from the creatures and above the clouds as she looked down onto her Beastie's face.

The fairies and creatures watched Maleficent and Aurora's figure grow smaller in anticipation. A ferocious, blood curling scream rang out into the night and a light, green, ray of energy shot out from the sky and past the creatures into the forest for miles to see, possibly even into the Kingdom as Maleficent's voice rang out into the night with rage.

* * *

And there we have it! Finishing with 3,458 words, Chapter 2 is over! I will try and get the next chapter up this weekend, possibly tomorrow night or Saturday depending on my work schedule and when I finish my homework. How do you think the story is going so far? Thoughts? Please let me know how you feel about the story so far in the comments, thanks for reading!

~Gryffindor


	3. Chapter 3

Yeah, so I know, I said that I would update over the weekend but it's been like a month since I last updated. I'm a horrible author, I know. Sorry for the long wait guys, I just got busy with finals and work and school and all that although I'm happy to say that I can now apply to EMT school, I just had to provide proof that I was vaccinated and upload these documents on some stupid ass website and make a bunch of trips all over town. Jesus that was annoying but I'm glad that I'm back to writing again! I have watched Maleficent 2 four times now and I'm waiting for it to be released on DVD or somewhere I can buy it online like YouTube or something, does anybody know when it's going to be released? Also, I quit smoking, so that's cool. I hope you all have been well! Ya'll ready for Christmas/ Hanuka/ Kwanzaa/ whateverthefuckyoucelebrate? Me too.  
YOOOOOOOOO I **almost** just spilled this fuckin tea ALL over my PC! Crisis averted omg i would've died if that had happened. Classes end next week btw, I'll write more than as well. Let me know if you have any ideas for future chapters or if their's something between the characters that you would like to see. Kay well I'll see you at the bottom of the page, lemme go write this story ttyl  
Also just so you guys know, the opening scene takes place about 10 minutes after Aurora was found by the Guardian

~Gryffindor

* * *

Diaval had been serving Maleficent for almost twenty long years and in that time he had learned a lot about Maleficent, her mannerisms, her emotions when she was hiding something from him. He was always able to tell when Maleficent was annoyed at him or some event that would take place. The angriest he had ever seen Maleficent was when he first met her after she had lost her wings. Maleficent was ruthless and merciless, feared by the Moorfolk and she took her place at the throne by force. The Moors had known nothing but pure happiness within the forest for a long time and had taken pleasure with the peace as it was only a short time ago that a war broke out between the Moors and the Kingdom. When Maleficent claimed herself, Queen of the Moors, everything changed. The sky stayed gray and depressed looking for weeks, reflecting Maleficent's depression. Sunlight only came out when the fae needed to harvest crops as Maleficent preferred an ominous sky within her realm. The wall of thorns kept any of the humans from coming in but also kept any fairies from traveling too far, which made the fairies feel trapped.

Diaval had been very careful in the first few years to not upset his mistress as she was short-tempered and would turn him into whatever creature she wanted too if he annoyed her. In fact, all the fairies had been quite keen to stay out of Maleficent's way for fear of catching her in a bad mood. Maleficent still cared for the Moors, of course, she still healed dying plants and trees and helped her fae-folk when they needed it. Diaval knew that Maleficent was still a good person at heart, all of the creatures did. It was just that Maleficent had been stripped of her wings, the one thing that brought her happiness and eased her stressed mind. It was humiliating to once be the fiercest flier of all dark fairies, now reduced to almost that of a human. Now she had nothing, could not feel the wind brush against her skin, could not soar into the sky as high as she wished. She was grounded and needed something to take her anger out on. No, Maleficent was not _evil_ if anything she was misunderstood and hurting.

Diaval had noticed that Maleficent started changing when Aurora was sent to live with the three fairies. At first, she only visited Aurora for her own amusement, as Maleficent loved watching the three sisters fail at such easy tasks and loved poking fun at them. Maleficent would use her magic to provoke them and it would often lead to them bickering and arguing with each other which only showed that the three fairies were not suited to care for a plant, let alone a human child! It was a hilarious situation to Maleficent, King Stephan had given his daughter to the three in order to hide Aurora from Maleficent for her own protection, and yet she had found Aurora within hours after the baby had been delivered from the Kingdom. King Stephan's attempts to hide his daughter was pure stupid, she would say to Diaval. "Does he not know that _I_ am the _ruler_ of the Moors? Queen overall fae-folk?" she threw her shoulder back in great pride and struck the ground with her staff, green light spreading across the field.

"It seems that the thought of Knotgrass, Thistlewit, and Flittle knowing you did not cross his mind, Mistress," Diaval said standing before her and watching her chuckle darkly.

"Obviously, Diaval. Humans are simple-minded creatures, and Stephan is no exception. He is the simplest of them all, I'm sure anyone could have realized that I would be able to find the girl, seeing as I am the Guardian of the Moors. A rather dumb decision to have the girl raised in a small cottage just outside the forest, don't you agree."

"Indeed, Mistress," Diaval said. These days he would keep his replies short and straight to the point as he did not wish to speak with her too long. Often times when Diaval said more than was needed Maleficent would take his words the wrong way and question his loyalty to her or test him before turning him into whatever creature first came to Maleficent's mind. He was lucky if it was a Raven. Diaval had been careful to watch his witty and sarcastic comments and learned to keep his tongue shut when she was on edge.

Over the years of watching Aurora grow up, Maleficent had softened up a bit and Diaval could get away with a few snarky comments and teasing her. Now, Maleficent was less likely to change Diaval's form if he was sarcastic and could be himself a lot more with her. But he could still read her actions and he knew when she was not to be tested, like right now.

Diaval had not ever seen Maleficent this angry in his entire life as she stood before Aurora's body looking down at her goddaughter, her eyes burning a fiery green. It took everything inside her to remain here with Aurora and not go after those responsible for Aurora's current state. She could easily tell Diaval to watch over Aurora until she returned from the Kingdom and be done with the humans; however, she remained still where she was. Diaval had watched over her in his Raven and kept his distance from the two. He did not want to be caught in the middle of her rage, but he worried for Aurora,

Blood was seeping out of her body fast and he knew that she needed help and quick if she was to live, as Aurora had lost a lot of blood. He waited for Maleficent to cool down a bit before approaching her carefully. Aurora had been in the Moors for what Diaval had guessed was little more than an hour. Maleficent had used her magic seal the open wounds in an ill attempt to keep them from bleeding, but could not keep her wounds from staying closed. They would open up as soon as she thought they were healed and she would use her magic to seal them once again. Maleficent had repeated this process many times and grew more frustrated each time. She did not understand why Aurora's body was not healing as fast as normal fairies would and Diaval knew why.

Fairies wounds healed faster than humans, as the magic inside the fae's blood could keep their bodies from bleeding out, automatically sealing small cuts within a matter of seconds and even prevent them from getting sick. In Aurora's case, if she was a fairy it would take about two days for her body to fully heal, maybe three. By now the bleeding should have stopped at least, and the body would begin the early stages of healing. The small cuts that spread across her body would be gone as well as her bruises. Aurora still looked like a bloody mess with various cuts and bruises scattered across her body. Diaval had learned a little about human bodies and their healing process during his time spent in the kingdom. He had been taught how to stop bleeding and certain herbs and alcohol to use for injuries from a maiden at an inn he would go to if he needed information for one of the many missions Maleficent would send him on. Diaval had seen many fights take place in the bar and watched many men be taken down and beaten to a pulp. He hated the atmosphere of the bar, the loud screams, and cheering, but he found it necessary to learn a bit about the human body in case he or Aurora ever got hurt and Maleficent was not around to help them.

Diaval finally gained enough courage to fly down to Maleficent's home which was simply an overgrown Bird's nest in the tallest Tree of the Moors. Maleficent had denied that it was a Bird's nest many times saying it was just a large layout of a bed. It wasn't though, it was a Bird's nest he would tease her for it.

The jet black raven flew down to his Mistress, flapping his wings fiercely in front of her and cawing loudly. She shot him a dangerous look which made him stop cawing immediately and turned him into a man. "AH, oh!" Diaval said, adjusting to the flat ground.

"Mistress?"

"What?" she growled, her eyes a bright green.

"Mistress, well, it's just that..." he put his hand up to his chin and thought of how to explain human injuries to Maleficent. "Well, humans don't heal as quickly as fairies do."

"I KNOW THAT!" she snapped at him.

"Right, right!" he took a step back and raising his hands up," but what I mean to say is that, well, Aurora needs help now. From someone who knows how to heal Aurora's wounds, someone who would know more about this than we would."

"And what would you suggest I do, Diaval? Fly down into the Kingdom and bring a stranger into the Moors to help? Someone who could potentially be one of the _vermin_ who attacked her?" she yelled at him.

"No, no of course not! I was merely suggesting that it might be reasonable to gather Knotgrass, Thistlewit, and Flittle! After all, they did live as humans for sixteen years! Surely they must be able to provide Aurora medical aid?" he said, quickly before she could interrupt him. Maleficent stared at him for a long moment thinking about his words and not realizing that her teeth were barred at him. '_It would not be unreasonable to assume that the pixies would know how to heal Aurora.'_ Maleficent thought to herself as she looked down at her Beastie.

"Right, so shall I go gather them and bring them here?" Diaval asked. Maleficent didn't realize she had been talking out loud to herself looking at him with squinted, green eyes. She nodded her head and watched Diaval as he turned into a Raven again and took off in search of Knotgrass, Flittle, and Thistlewit. Maleficent had only waited about a minute before Diaval returned with the pixies following close behind him. Most of the Moorfolk had been waiting close by Maleficent's tree for news on Aurora's condition and Diaval was able to sport the three quickly. "I hope Aurora's alright!" Thistlewit said.

"She didn't look too well when we saw her come into the forest!" Flittle said.

"Oh I do hope she's okay!" Thistlewit replied.

"Pay attention," Knotgrass said, looking back at her sisters as they flew to Maleficent and Aurora's figures. Normally the pixies were unfocused and often distracted (they're literally the epitome of my ADHD), but upon seeing Aurora their attention sharpened and they began flying around the young Queen's body inspecting Aurora's injuries. "We have to work quickly if we're going to keep Aurora from getting sick." Knotgrass said.

"We'll need herbs," Flittle said.

"And lots of cloth to stop the bleeding!" Thistlewit added. Maleficent used her magic to conjure up some towels for the pixies from subspace. Thistlewit grabbed some cloth and began to fly around Aurora's head wrapping her temple while Maleficent applied pressure to it. "Diaval, fly down to the forest and gather the herbs for Aurora." Maleficent said placing her goddaughters head in her lap and putting her hands over her right temple. Blood still seeped through the cloth and Maleficent could feel her palm getting slightly wet but ignored. Knotgrass turned to Diaval and began listing off all the herbs and plants she would need to help Aurora's injuries heal but Maleficent wasn't listening. She felt horrible as she looked down at Aurora's bloody body. She could feel her anger bubbling inside of her screaming to be let out. Maleficent silently vowed to hunt down all those who were responsible for leaving Aurora in this state, cursing herself for not being able to sense the danger beforehand. She should have been there before the Kingdom was overthrown to save Aurora, should have sent Diaval out to check up on her. Of course Maleficent knew she couldn't blame herself for Aurora's attack happening, but she still for some reason felt responsible.

Maleficent was so lost in her thoughts she didn't even realize she had turned Diaval into a Raven on command and that he flew off in search of the herbs. Aurora's lip and nose had stopped bleeding some time ago, probably before Maleficent had even found her like this. It looked dry and sticky on Aurora's soft skin and Maleficent noticed how it had dribbled down to her neck and onto her nightgown. "Maleficent, um... Mistress," Flittle said. "Could you maybe lift Aurora up so we can check the back of her shoulder?" Maleficent obliged and carefully placed her hands on Aurora's back and lifted her upper body up.

Knotgrass, Thistlewit, and Flittle came to look at Aurora's back and noticed her bloody shoulder. Blood seeped through her nightgown and covered Maleficent's black dress in a dark, crimson red and onto the soft ground. Knotgrass flew closer to the injury to get a better look at it as her sisters stayed behind feeling queasy. "It's at least two inches deep, maybe three," Knotgrass said turning around to face her sisters. "We'll have to work quickly and diligently on this one, it could lead to an insection."

"What did you say?" Flittle asked.

"_Insection_," Knotgrass said sighing heavily and rolling her eyes. "It's when a human can get sick from an injury if it's not treated!"

"Um, Knotgrass?" Flittle said.

"What?"

"Well, it's called _infection_, not _insection_," Thistlewit said, beginning to laugh and Flittle joined her.

"Oh, who _cares_ what it's called!" Knotgrass snapped turning her attention back to Aurora. "We won't be able to wrap the wound up until we have the medicine for this, and I'm afraid that these herbs might not be enough to keep Aurora from getting sick. In the meantime, our best bet is to have Maleficent use her magic to stop the bleeding." Doing so, Maleficent sent green whisps into Aurora's shoulder and watched as the skin inside began to glow lightly.

As the four waited for Diaval to get back with all that was needed, Flittle flew down to a pond and grabbed a nearby bucket filling it with water and flew back up to Maleficent's nest. Thistlewit began to clean the blood from Aurora's nose and Knotgrass had wrapped up Aurora's scraped knee and her elbow. Diaval returned ten minutes later, a variety of plants in his beak and what looked to be a set of night clothes in his talons. He placed the herbs and clothing next to Aurora's body and flew back, landing on his feet as Maleficent changed him into a man. "Right, now we can set to work healing Aurora's injuries." Knotgrass said, grabbing a few of the herbs in her hands and crunching them up together, preparing to sprinkle them on Aurora's injuries. "Sorry for taking so long, Mistress," Diaval said panting and stepping closer to her, "I went and grabbed a pair of my nightclothes for Aurora. They may be for men, but I figured she might be more comfortable in these." Maleficent shook her head to him and the two watched the pixie's flying fiercely around her.

"Right then girls, let's set to work on this nasty wound back here." Knotgrass said. Maleficent and Diaval turned Aurora over on her side so that the Pixies would have an easier time healing it. "Unfortunately, the wound has started closing itself, most likely due to Maleficent's magic healing it. It may be infected inside already, so we'll have to open it back up again so that we can sprinkle the herbs into her wound." Knotgrass said. Maleficent and Diaval moved Aurora over on her side and Flittle and Thistlewit stripped the top of Aurora's dress down and moved the bloody garment out of Knotgrass's way. Knotgrass slowly placed her hands onto the laceration and pulled the skin apart as fast as she could. Aurora shrieked out in pain and Maleficent felt her heart tearing. She hated seeing Aurora like this and ran a hand down Aurora's hair.

"Alright, now we're going to try using a mixture of goldenrod and a bit of the water. It might sting her, so ready yourselves." Knotgrass said. Slowly, the pixie sprinkled a bit of the goldenrod onto her skin and moved out of the way so that Thistlewit could pour some water into the injury. Aurora's face tensed up and she groaned a bit. Knotgrass and Thistlewit repeated the process once more and Aurora hissed in pain and moved to swat away the pixies. Maleficent could her emotions swirling around within her as she wanted to fly away and murder the people responsible for this but she also wanted to hold Aurora close to her and protect her from the pain. Knotgrass grabbed another herb and mixed it water, waiting until it turned into a fine paste and spread it around the length of Aurora's wound sealing it. "Now what? Diaval asked."

"We wrap it up as best as we can and hope it doesn't get infected." Knotgrass said. Maleficent and Diaval sat Aurora back up so that the pixies could wrap her shoulder. They didn't mind that Aurora's chest wasn't covered exposing her bare breasts. Fae folk were not as embarrassed by such things as humans were; seeing male and female anatomies was just simply like seeing an arm or a leg, not even Diaval seemed uncomfortable.

Maleficent used her magic to lift Aurora up and out of her dirt and blood covered dress throwing her clean clothes over the body, a simple shirt and a pair of night trousers. As gently as she could, Maleficent placed Aurora back down onto the ground and placed her head back in her lap and began to stroke Aurora's golden locks. "Well, I suppose there's not much more we can do now." Knotgrass said.

"Yes, we'll have to wait and see how Aurora responds to medicine," Thistlewit said.

"We can come back tomorrow and check up on her," Flittle said.

"Ensure you do. I'll be watching over Aurora in case her condition gets worse. I'll send Diaval out to fetch you if it does." Maleficent growled back, quite clearly still angry.

"Right, well then we'll just be off now," Flittle said to Maleficent, as the three flew back slowly away from the larger woman.

"Yes, good evening to you mistress." Thistle said.

Diaval watched as the three flew away from Maleficent, clearly eager to get away from her lest she let her wrath escape her. "Mistress?" Diaval asked, not sure what he should do.

"What?" Maleficent asked.

"Can I get you anything?" he asked her.

"No. You've done enough for tonight, Diaval. Go and rest. I shall find you if I need you." Maleficent said turning to look at her servant in the face.

"Of course, mistress," Diaval said bowing and suddenly turning back into a Raven and flying off into the darkness. Maleficent watched as his figure grew smaller and into little more than a dot.

Now alone in her home, or rather her large, overgrown nest, Maleficent sighed as looked back down onto Aurora. Her face was no longer bloody, but her left eye was swollen shut as well as she cut lip. Maleficent lifted Aurora's bridal style into her arms and moved to a more comfortable part of her nest, placing Aurora down gently. Maleficent now got a better view of Aurora's body as the moonlight shone down onto her making her look like some glowing sleeping beauty. Maleficent realized how much Aurora had grown into her body as well. Her face was not as round as it had been, her cheeks sharper and her chin narrow. Maleficent had also noticed that her breasts were larger now and more curved, fitting the shape of a young woman more than a child which she had just been two years ago. Maleficent knew her Beastie was growing older and she was proud of her goddaughter, but she also felt sad knowing that eventually she would grow up and have a life of her own. Of course, Aurora would always come to Maleficent, she knew that but the fairy knew that Aurora and Philip would marry one day. It made her blood boil. No human man was perfect for Aurora, Maleficent believed that Aurora was too innocent and precious for a man to take her off to bed.

Still though Maleficent had to admit to herself that Philip was the kindest man she had ever come across. He was well mannered, generous, affectionate and obviously cared about Aurora deeply. Anyone watching the two talk with each other could tell they were in love with the other, the way they looked at each other, talked with each other, hugged each other and as much as Maleficent hated to think about it, the way they kissed each other. No, Philip was a perfect match for Aurora deep down and she knew that he would ask for her hand in marriage one day. Seeing Aurora getting married made Maleficent happy and upset at the same time, She didn't want her Beastie to grow up, but she also wanted her to have her own life. She just wasn't ready to let her go, not yet.

Maleficent laid down against the strong trunk of her tree and placed Aurora on her chest, stroking her goddaughter's hair and kissed the top of her head. Maleficent wrapped her wings around them both protectively and soon joined Aurora in a deep slumber.

* * *

And there we have it, chapter 3. I tried to add a bit of fluff to this chapter, I love reading fics where Maleficent is protective over Aurora. I gotta get to bed it'l 1 a.m. here and I have work tomorrow but I'm starting to work on the next chapter so it should be up sooner rather than later. I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please let me know how you feel about it. Also it'll be a little before Aurora wakes up so as for right now she's out until further notice. I have to do some research for the next chapter and get it up before Christmas. If I don't thought, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas/ Hanuka/ Kwanzaa/whateverthefuckyoucelebrate. If you're reading this in the future, humor me; I hope you have a very Merry week. Ok fr though i gotta go im tired incase you couldn't tell. byyyyye much love to u all 3

~Gryffindor.


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, so 4th chapter of the story. Not much to say, it's the last week of school and I'm REALLY happy about that! I have finals Thursday and then I'm done. This chapter is going to have some fluff in it so for those of you that enjoy seeing that between Aurora and Maleficent, this one's for you.

~Gryffindor

* * *

Maleficent woke up the next morning and yawned, arms wrapped protectively around Aurora's waist. She looked down at the younger woman that was sprawled out on her and sighed, tilting her head back as she remembered the events from last night. Maleficent gently moved Aurora off of her and got up, stretching her wings and using her magic to fix her hair and changed her brown dress to black and procured a leather head wrap over her horns, sporting her a more intimidating look. She looked at Aurora's still sleeping form and knelt down to inspect her injuries. Aurora's forehead was wrapped up in a white cloth and there were dark blood spots that had seeped through the cloth, but it had remained closed throughout the night. She waved her hand and Aurora was lifted into the air by her magic.

The older woman moved to Aurora's back and inspected her shoulder, which had also bled a bit through the cloth. Maleficent put her fingers on the wound and could feel heat radiating onto her fingertips. She undid part of the bandages to better see how it looked, unwrapping it slowly in case it opened up again. Her wound looked pink around the edges and a deep red in the middle. Maleficent wasn't sure if that was a good or bad sign, she would have the pixies look at it later today.

Maleficent brought Aurora back down onto the soft floor and moved her golden locks out of her fact taking note of her forehead being warm. She needed Diaval's help to judge if the pixies would need to come back or not. Coincidentally, Diaval had swooped down from a tree branch in front of her cawing softly. She changed his form to a man and waited for him to catch his balance on the ground. "Good morning Mistress," Diaval said looking up at her.

"Morning, Diaval." Maleficent murmured.

"How is Aurora fairing?" he asked nodding his head at her unmoving form.

"I cannot say," Maleficent said, looking down. "She is still sleeping, although she seems to be in slight discomfort."Diaval walked over to Aurora and knelt down putting a hand over her forehead and on her cheeks. "What are you doing to her?" Maleficent asked.

"Checking her temperature. One of the ways to tell if a human is sick is to see if they're forehead or cheeks are hot." Diaval finished his assessment and stood back putting his hands on his hips, sighing and shaking his head.

"Well?" Maleficent demanded to know what Diaval was thinking regarding Aurora.

"Well, it's nothing to get too worked up about, but she has developed a fever."

"Fever?"

"A type of human sickness, I had one once when Aurora was a baby."

"And was it fatal?"

"No, it was treatable. Although I cannot say if Aurora's fever was caused by an infection or by the weather. Either way, we will need medicine, and from the Kingdom. I'm afraid no herbs can cure a fever. The only thing we can do for Aurora right now is to keep her cool so that her temperature doesn't rise anymore. I suggest putting a wet rag over her forehead, I've heard it can help relieve the person's pain a bit." he said.

Maleficent closed her and sighed as she gathered her thoughts up. She would need Diaval to go into the kingdom and get medicine for Aurora, but seeing as the kingdom was overthrown, there may be chaos. She wondered if the humans were even out in the public working at their stands and shops or if they were hiding from potential threats. If the humans could leave Aurora in this state, they could do the same to Diaval in his human form as well. "Mistress?" Diaval asked snapping her out of her thoughts. "I can sneak into the Kingdom and get some for her. It wouldn't be that hard." Diaval said ready to take flight immediately.

"Very well," Maleficent said turning to look at him. "Gather the medicine for Aurora and come back as soon as you have it. Do not waste any time doing so. After you return, I will need for you to see what you can find out about what happened to her as well. I want to know why Aurora was left in such a state." Maleficent's burned a furious green and Diaval felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of his face. He swallowed and nodded his head slowly before he felt himself morphing into a Raven. He flew off into the distance of the Kingdom and Maleficent turned her attention back to the young Queen. Aurora's face looked a sickly grey and her cheeks were flushed.

She walked over to the edge of her nest and flew down looking for the pixies. Most of the Moorfolk had turned their attention to her and were eager to hear news of Aurora's condition. After all, she was still Queen of the Moors and Aurora was loved by all the creatures within the forest and they cared deeply for their beloved Queen. Maleficent would deal with them later and continued on her search for the pixies, finding them arguing amongst themselves. They immediately stopped when they caught sight of Maleficent's shadow and turned around to watch the large fairy land on the earth before them. "You three come with me. I need you to check on Aurora."

"Of course, my Queen" Knotgrass said.

"We've been worrying about her all morning." Thistlewit said.

"How is she?" Flittle asked?

"Diaval believes she has developed a fever," Maleficent said watching them share understanding looks and feeling slightly more at ease that the pixies seemed to know what she was talking about. "We need to move fast if we are to keep her injuries from becoming infected." They wasted no time following the Queen back to her home and immediately flew over to Aurora. "Oh, dear! She looks awful!" Flittle said putting her hands over her mouth. Aurora's face looked paler and flushed as beads of sweat were spreading on her forehead. Maleficent also noticed that Aurora's eyes were scrunched up and she appeared to be in pain. "Beastie..." she whispered to herself feeling her heart ache for her goddaughter.

"Yes, it appears Diaval was right. She's very hot as well, classic signs of a fever." Knotgrass said feeling Aurora's forehead.

"It must've been caused by the weather." Thistlewit said.

_"No_! it was not caused by the _weather_! It was caused by her shoulder injury." Knotgrass said rolling her eye and Flittle nodded her head in agreement.

"Are you quite sure? She did wander in the forest for a long time and last night was terribly cold! I say it was caused by the weather!" Thistlewit said and Flittle changed her mind and decided it was the weather.

"Well that may be, but Aurora's shoulder injury is far more likely to get infected which is what would be more likely to cause her sickness!" Knotgrass said flying closer to her sister and Flittle looked as if she were about to agree with her until she shooked her head and couldn't decide which one it was.

"It was the weather!" Thistlewit said pushing Knotgrass back.

"Her shoulder!" Knotgrass yelled pushing Thistlewit back once again. The two continued on before a forceful energy got between them and pushed them away from each other.

"I DO NOT CARE WHAT CAUSED HER FEVER!" Maleficent roared, growing impatient. "My daughter is growing sicker as each minute passes, and if you three cannot help her, then you are of no use to me!" The pixies immediately ceased fighting immediately, nodding their heads up at Maleficent.

"Forgive us, my Queen! We will not let it happen again!" Knotgrass said bowing her head.

"See to it that it does not." Maleficent growled back at her. Flittle took the bucket from last night and was sent to dump out the old water and fill the bucket with fresh, cool water while Thistlewit and Knotgrass unwrapped her knee and her forehead so that they could put more herbs on the cuts and scrapes. Knotgrass could hear Thistlewit mutter "I still say it was caused by the weather," and shot her a nasty look but decided to drop it out of fear for upsetting Maleficent any further.

The large fairy had taken to Aurora's side watching over her protectively and looking at the sky for any signs of Diaval returning with the medicine. "Here's the water." Flittle panted as she landed on the floor with a thud and water splashed around the bucket.

"Be careful!" Knotgrass snapped.

"You try to carry this heavy bucket all around the Moors!" Flittle retorted to her sister. Knotgrass was about to say something smart back but quickly decided against it as Maleficent shot them both a dangerous look. "We have to re-wrap her back as well." Thistlewit said.

"Yes, and we'll need to apply another coat of the herbs on it as well. First, we should take a look at it and see if it's gotten worse over night." Knotgrass said. Maleficent waved her hand and Aurora was carefully pulled up into a sitting position and her shirt was taken off again so that the pixies could see how her shoulder was holding up. Flittle pulled the slightly bloody bandages away and threw them on the ground. The cut had remained open and was a reddish, pink around the edges. "That's not good. It seems that the herbs we used didn't do much of anything." Knotgrass said, worry in her voice.

"Oh, what are we going to do?" Thistlewit asked. Maleficent was about to snap at them to figure something out when a rather loud caw made them all look up. Diaval was carrying a few bottles in his talons and beak and flew down to the pixies and Maleficent. He dropped the bottles down next to Aurora and as soon as he did Maleficent turned him back into a man. "Diaval!" Maleficent said, pleased to see her servant return so soon.

"Mistress, I have some medicine for Aurora!" he said, paying no attention to the fact that Aurora wasn't wearing a shirt and that her bare breasts showed again. Again, fae folk did not mind seeing such displays.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Flittle said, flying in a circle and throwing her hands in the air. Diaval picked up a small bottle with a brown liquid inside. "This is alcohol. The humans use it to clean out cuts when they're injured. I guess it's supposed to clean out excess dirt and germs and such; however, it stings them a lot."

"Well, we should use it!" Thistlewit said.

"The herbs did nothing to help Aurora." Flittle added.

"I was afraid of that. Unfortunately, this is the only bottle I was able to swipe before a human entered the room. I flew out of the window before I was noticed and was only able to grab the whiskey." he said setting it back down.

"What are the others for?" Knotgrass asked pointing to the other two remaining bottles.

Diaval picked up another bottle which was more of a yellowish paste than a liquid and held it up for the others to see. "This is a paste you put on after you clean out a wound. I'm not too familiar with it, but I know that it helps with the healing process. And this," Diaval said, setting the paste down and grabbing a bottle which had a green liquid inside it, "this is supposed to help her fever go down. I'm not sure what it's called either, but I've seen many nurses use this on the sick. You're supposed to have the other person drink a bit of it before they fall asleep."

"Which should we start with?" Flittle asked.

"I suggest using the whiskey first, then the paste. I believe Aurora's shoulder injury is causing an infection to develop." Diaval said not noticing a look of triumph spreading across Knotgrass's face as she shot Thistlewit an _I told you so_ smile.

"Remember, it's going to sting her so we should be extra careful!' Flittle said nervously. Maleficent instinctively knelt on her knees beside Aurora's body ready to hold her back in case she swatted at them like last night. A look of sadness flashed across Maleficent's face as she did not want Aurora to feel such pain, but knew it was necessary to keep her from becoming sicker. She conjured up more clothes and bandages for the pixies and Diaval to use.

Diaval picked up the whiskey and opened the bottle, pouring a small amount in the cap and soaking it in a cloth. He lightly dabbed at Aurora's shoulder and the blonde twitched upon contact with the brown liquid. Diaval brought the cloth down and coated it with more liquid and went a little deeper than before making sure that her shoulder was clean before it would be wrapped up again. Aurora grabbed out at Maleficent's arm and clutched at her a look of true disgust and pain on her face. Maleficent held Aurora's hand and squeezed it back, wishing she could take the pain away from her, even wishing that she could feel the pain instead of her Beastie. "S-stop!" she breathed out gasping for air as Diaval poured more into the cap, hating himself for causing Aurora such pain.

"Just a little more." Diaval said, finishing up with her shoulder and allowing Knotgrass to get closer so that she could rub the yellow paste onto her back.

"Wait!" Maleficent said, holding out her hand keeping the pixie from putting it on Aurora's shoulder.

"What?"

"Will that hurt her?" Maleficent hesitated.

"I'm not sure, but we haven't got much of a choice if we are to help her." Knotgrass replied looking to Diaval for help.

"Mistress, she's only trying to help Aurora. It may be painful to watch her like this, but it's for the best/" Diaval said. Maleficent stared at Aurora contemplating something before turning back to Knotgrass. "Very well. But I wish to do it."

"O-of course, Mistress." Knotgrass said handing the small glass bottle to the brunette. Maleficent stuck her finger inside of the glass and scooped up a fine amount of the yellow paste onto her finger and slowly brought it to Aurora's back and spread it around her shoulder. Aurora tensed up a bit but did not cry again and soon her face relaxed again. The pixies wrapped Aurora's shoulder once again and set to work on the blonde's elbow and knee. Aurora did not scream or groan again but did twitch when Diaval poured the brown liquid onto her knee. Maleficent put her hand over her goddaughter's head as she slowly laid the younger woman back down onto the floor placing her head in her lap. After Aurora's knee and elbow were cleaned and wrapped up in more cloth, the pixie's, Diaval and Maleficent debated on whether or not they should wake Aurora so that she could take the medicine for her fever or just pour some down her throat.

"She could choke on it," Diaval said.

"Yes, and we wouldn't want that." Knotgrass said.

"Oh, but she looks so sweet and innocent looking when she's sleeping!" Flittle said, smiling down at Aurora's sleeping form, her head still in Maleficent's lap.

"What if she doesn't even wake up?" Thistlewit asked.

"It may well be worth a try to rouse her." Diaval suggested to Maleficent running a hand down his black hair.

"I agree. Aurora should be awake to drink this... medicine." Maleficent said, eyeing the green liquid as if it were possibly poisonous. The brunette moved her arm underneath Aurora's head and held her head up so that she could pour the liquid into her mouth.

"Beatsie," Maleficent whispered silently into her goddaughter's ear. "Beastie, wake up. You have to drink this." Maleficent did not receive a response and she sighed, knowing that she would have to resort to a more annoying way of waking up the sleeping beauty. "Aurora, wake up." she shook her lightly. Aurora moaned out and her right eye fluttered open a bit and quickly squeezed shut. Perhaps she tried to open up both eyes and hurt her left one in the process as it was still swollen shut.

"Aurora?" Maleficent said, holding Aurora's head up a little bit more. Aurora opened her right eye in a dazed and confused state, not sure where she was. Her body ached all over and groaned out a bit blinking a few times. "Beastie, can you hear me?" Maleficent asked Aurora.

"G-godmother?" Aurora asked silently closing her eye again.

"Beastie, you have to drink this. It will help you." Maleficent said taking the bottle from Diaval and putting it to her lips.

"A-ah. No." Aurora croaked out and turned her head away from the bottle.

"Please, Aurora. It will help to ease your pain." Maleficent said, pleading with her goddaughter.

Aurora frowned in both annoyance and pain as her head began to throb and she could feel her heartbeat pounding against her head. "W-Why.. why are you hurting me?" Aurora whispered out, possibly not even sure who she was talking too. Maleficent her lips quiver a bit and brought her Beastie's head to her chest. "Beastie... I would never cause you any harm. I promise you this." she spoke out blinking away tears that were threatening to form. "You need to drink this though, it will help you get better."

"... okay." Aurora said. Maleficent brought the bottle back up to Aurora's lips and carefully poured some of the liquid into Aurora's mouth. Aurora swallowed it whole and began to cough out violently, some of the liquid spraying out of her mouth and dribbling down her chin. Maleficent quickly set the bottle down and wiped away the liquid from Aurora's face and held her closer to her chest. When the young blonde settled down again she quickly fell back to sleep again. The pixies bid their farewell and flew off again after they had checked over Aurora's body and deciding that it was fine.

"Diaval?" Maleficent asked, still holding Aurora and looking down at Aurora's cut and swollen face.

"Yes, Mistress?" the tall man asked, standing up in a proud manner ready for further instructions.

"I need you to fly to the castle. Find out who is responsible for hurting Aurora," she said

"Yes, Mistress. I will not fail you." Diaval replied before he was turned into a Raven and he took off in the sky flying in the direction of the castle. Maleficent looked up at his shrinking figure and sighed. She was not sure how long it would be before he returned to her. She had not forgotten about Aurora's attackers and would make sure that they would pay. She felt anger rising inside of her and pushed it back down. Right now there was little more Maleficent could do other than resent these men and daydream about wreaking havoc on them, but she knew that Aurora needed her right now more than ever.

Maleficent shifted to a more comfortable positioned and heled Aurora closer to her body being used as a pillow for Aurora. She would not leave her goddaughter's side while she healed and Maleficent would be there for her when she woke back up. Looking up at the bucket that was filled with water, Maleficent flicked her hand and the bucket glided over to her and landed softly next to her. Maleficent grabbed a cloth and soaked it in the cold water and squeezed it before placing it over Aurora's hot forehead. Aurora's face relaxed as the cool cloth cooled down her burning head and her head fell loosely to Maleficent's chest. The older woman ran her hand down Aurora's blonde locks and closed her eyes as she laid back against the trunk of the tree waiting for Diaval to return.

* * *

Okay, so next chapter is mainly going to be focused around Diaval and what he finds out about in the castle. I'm not sure when I'll upload the next chapter, I'm going to need to think about how I'm going to write it but I'll try and get it out before Christmas. If I don't get another chapter out before then, I hope you all have a very Merry holiday or a great Hannukah/ Kwanza or just a good day. If you're reading this in the future and it's sometime in the summer or whatever, humor me. See ya'll next time. Let me know if there's anything you would like to see in future chapters and how you think the story is going so far :) If you could leave me a review that would be awesome!


	5. Chapter 5

hope ur holidays were good, happy New Year. Also, I know you're all sick and tired of reading "Kingdom" all the time, believe me, I'm tired of writing it. Just bare with me here, idk the name of Stephan's Kingdom, ok? cool, so don't tare me a new one for that

~Godric

* * *

Diaval flew past the tree branches and into the Kingdom past the lake and soared up to the castle towers. He landed on the stone roof and surveyed the town. It was midday in the Kingdom and normally the citizens would be walking around the shops in the center of the city running errands and going about their business, but today there was not a single person he could see outside, aside from the guards that roamed the town. It was odd and eerie seeing the Kingdom so empty and an eerie quietness that was unsettling to Diaval. It was possible that the Moors were louder than the usual noisy and busy Kingdom. Diaval flew down from the tower and onto a balcony just below the below. "Oi, shoo! Go on, get out of here!" a guard said swaying his arms at him. He cawed at him in frustration and flew off to the other side of the castle. How was he supposed to find out what happened to Aurora and her Kingdom as a crow?

He landed on top of a post looking into an open window where two men were speaking with each other, one of them wearing a crown and a wool robe who Diaval took to be the new King and the other wearing a dirty coat and muddy pants. He looked like an outlaw. Diaval could hear their soft voices speaking and he peered inside. "Has there been any sign of the girl?" the man with the crown asked.

"Not yet. She's probably still in the forest."

"AS long as she lives, we will rage war against her," the Kingly looking man said stroking his long goatee, "Taking back the Kingdom was only a start. Our next course of action is to take the Moors. We claim the land ours, destroy those monsters and expand our land.

"Yes, but what about the winged witch and her army? We lost a lot of men taking back the throne, we don't have enough men to fight the witch."

"With the knights that remain plus our men counted, we will win." the man replied. "I have foreseen it, Arthur." The other man, Arthur, rolled his eyes when his King wasn't looking and shook his head in sheer disbelief. "Dutch, don't take this the wrong way, but are you feeling okay?"

"Well, of course, I'm feeling fine! Better than I ever have! Arthur, we are one step closer to glory! We just need to wait a while before we can start trading again. Once things settle down and we get some more gold, we can get rid of that peasant girl's stupid laws and we will take what's ours!"

"Dutch, listen- KING Dutch, Arthur! King Dutch!" King Dutch yelled making Arthur put his hands up to try and calm him.

"R-Right... _King_ Dutch... there's a lot more at stake now! We have a whole Kingdom to run! I mean... I don't think it's such a good idea to go and piss off some witch we don't know nothing about! And besides, these people need a leader right now, not another war!" Arthur said, almost pleading with Dutch to try and see his logic. Dutch turned around and closed eyes chuckling to himself and put his hands on his hips. "Oh, Arthur... so faithless... These people will not be safe," he said turning around his face now red with stress, "as long as that witch lives. We will take the throne."

"Dutch, running a ki- KING Dutch!" he snapped.

"King Dutch, whatever! You're still the same man you were when you ran the market!" King Dutch's brown eyes narrowed at the man and he slowly walked over to  
Arthur, his fur robe dragging on the floor behind him. "Same man?" Tell me Arthur, is the Kingdom still the same? Is the market still the same?" he asked. Arthur opened his mouth but couldn't think of anything to say and looked at the floor as if the answers were written on the red carpet. King Dutch looked satisfied at seeing his advisor or second in command, or whatever he was, Diaval thought, when Arthur had nothing to say at that.

"Times change, Arthur, my boy. But we haven't. This world _needs_ us!"

"You killed innocent men, Dutch," Arthur said, still looking at the floor, "The Dutch I knew raised me to never kill in cold blood." Diaval admired this man's bravery but also wondered if he knew how to keep his mouth shut. It reminded him of the advice he used to give Maleficent when he first met her and how it always ended up with him being turned into a dog. He now knew when to challenge Maleficent and when not to and clearly Arthur did not.

"Oh, come now, Arthur! Have some god damned _faith_! Thing's have never gone our way like this before, we've always been running from the law or nearly getting lynched! And now," he threw his hands up dramatically and looked around the room, "we finally have a whole lot of luck on our side! We got the throne, the jewels, the gold, and the entire army and you're acting as if we ain't got nothing! You're acting like we lost the war! Of course, I'm still the same man I was before! Are you too, Arthur?" King Dutch looked at him expectantly.

"Course I am," Arthur said as he rested his hand on his baldric, "Just didn't realize we were gonna start killing innocent folk."

"We've always killed people who stood in our way," Dutch said softly. "We cannot let anyone stop us now. There's too much too loose and I... need you to trust in me now." Dutch walked over to a table that had a map and loomed over it. Arthur slowly walked over to him while taking out a pipe and began to fill it.

"Now, we need to figure out a way to start the illegal trades again. You reckon anyone still wants to trade with us?"

"Well, seeing as you're King now, I doubt anyone will say no to you." Arthur replied, lighting his pipe. Dutch nodded his head as he traced the map with a gloved hand. "And if they don't, we'll kill 'em." he muttered. Arthur looked up at Dutch as if he had never met this man before.

"Dutch, you have the throne. You're _King_! Why you wanna keep terrorizing people?" he asked.

"We're not gonna terrorize nobody, for god's sake, Arthur! We just gotta 'em scared enough from overthrowing us. The trades will begin again, and we'll get rid of these new laws that little girl passed."

"Never took you for a politician." Arthur said, handing his pipe to Dutch who ignored his comment. "Once we do that, we'll extend our trade to Ulstead and the other Kingdoms then get more people to fight with us. Our armies will grow and we'll take the Moors. Our people will thrive once we take them, you'll see. Soon, there won't be a single poor person in this land!"

How are these people supposed to thrive if we're stealing from 'em, _King_ Dutch?' Arthur asked taking his pipe back from Dutch.

"We extend our trade to Ulstead and take what's ours. Give it back to the people and this Kingdom will flourish. Small sacrifice to pay. We need to build our army up before we can do that. The last so-called Queen destroyed more than half this Kingdom's weapons all in the name of _peace_. We just need to build up our troops and start the trade again. The plan _will_ work, Arthur! I promise you! Just. Have. Faith."

Diaval had heard enough of this mad man. King Dutch sounded almost as insane as Stephan, obsessed with his plans and greedy with too much power. Diaval doubted his _glorified _plan would work since the King of Ulstead was the last King to fall to corruption. Ulstead had been involved in a few wars, but Philip's father had always been more of a peaceful man and usually hoped to settle conflicts before a battle even broke out. He knew there was hardly any illegal trading that took place in Ulstead and the ones that did were always reported immediately. But still, the threat to the Moors hung heavily on his shoulders, or rather his wings as he soared down into the city.

The raven looked down at the Kingdom and still could not spot any citizens. He glided down to a tavern that was always the first to open and last to close in the Kingdom and landed on the window sill. Usually, the bar was loud and rowdy with drunken brawlers and people placing wagers against the ones that would fight or sometimes the people inside would be singing and dancing quite clumsily. Diaval only came to this bar because it was the only place where he could get information from when Maleficent wanted to know what was going on inside the town. He would charm one of the women and hear rumors about what the people were up to. Maleficent sent him down to ensure that the people were never going to revolt against Aurora or try to take the Moors... He had failed at that. Diaval had heard secrets about the black market trade, but he never heard anything about a plot to overthrow the course, he knew he couldn't blame himself for everything that had transpired within the past week, but still. Maybe he could have found out about the planned attack and protected Aurora.

Inside the tavern, there were only three people inside and they were sitting at a table with their heads hung low. "Shame, really. She was such a sweet girl." one of them said.

"Indeed. Do you reckon they've found her yet?"

"Probably not. I'm sure if they did we'd be allowed to go out now."

"You think that's why they won't let anyone outside?"

"I'm sure of it. It'd be hard to spot the Queen if she came into town with a bunch of blokes walking around."

"Don't make any sense though. She'd stand out in a crowd, with that long blonde hair."

"Well, that and the fact that she's different from others. Do'ya ever realize that?"

"How do'ya mean?"

"Well, I mean she's just so... caring. Always got that look in her eyes, especially when she's talking. She stands out from others."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what it is about that woman, but she's not like the rest of us... And that's not exactly a bad thing."

"Didn't she grow up in the woods away from all of us?"

"Aye. King Stephan ordered that you remember?"

"The whole Kingdom remembers that! You don't because you were drunk the whole week! You never forget when a baby gets cursed."

"She should've cursed you, mate!"

"Haha, aye, that she should have! Cheers!" the other two laughed, clinging their mugs together. The other man opened his mouth to retort back when the doors suddenly opened and the room went dead silent as three heads turned to see who had come in. "Well? Can we go outside yet?"

"No," a guard said walking over to the bar, "Only came in for a drink."

"Any word on when we'll be allowed to open up? We haven't made a profit since you lot took the castle."

"Do I looked like King Dutch?" the guard asked as he filled a glass up with some yellowish liquid.

"Surely not."

"Mind your words! Besides, I've been a guard before Dutch even took over."

"You know, I'm gonna have to start charging all of you! Keep coming in here and taking all o' me drinks! I mean, a man's gotta make a profit!"

"I'll take what I want and be off," the guard said walking over to the doors, "unless you want trouble?" He turned to look over his shoulder at the men and placed his hand on his sword.

"Oh, go on then. But you should know I'm running low. Pretty soon I'll be out." The guard said nothing and walked out of the tavern clamming the doors behind him. "Damn fools. I'm just glad they didn't bring their fight their raid here into the town!"

"Right that! I woke up from all the screaming up there. Mind you, the whole Kingdom was awake! Not a single person fell back asleep after that."

"I'm surprised there were even enough of those black market folks to overthrow the whole castle!"

"I'm not. Don't get me wrong, the Old Queen had a heart of gold, but she didn't have a mean bone in her. She got rid of half the castle's army and weapons. I'm sure all her men had to fight with were swords and crossbows. Didn't stand a chance."

"What do you reckon will become of the knights? You think they'll fight with Dutch or stand against him?"

"well, they'll have to join him. They''re sworn to serve whoever's King and Queen, don't they? And the ones that don't will probably end up beheaded." The three continued on with their conversations and drinking and Diaval flew off again. He needed to clear his mind and gather his thoughts before he reported back to his Mistress. He landed on a tree branch just outside the Moors and rested for a bit as he thought of Dutch's crazy plans. So, the black market gangs had been the ones to hurt his little Aurora? They would pay dearly for it, Maleficent would definitely make sure of it. It took a lot out of Diaval to not swoop in and scratch out Dutch's eyes! Perhaps Maleficent would turn Diaval into a dragon again and allow him to burn all of those thugs. How he would love to set them all on fire and watch the ones who caused Aurora's injuries to burn until their skin turned to ash.

For a while, Diaval stood on the branch and through, his mind conflicted with trying to stay calm for Maleficent's sake, but he also felt a powerful rage building inside of him. The sound of hoof's matching onto the Earth was what snapped him back to reality. Who could possibly be traveling to the fallen Kingdom that was in such a chaotic state? The raven turned his head and looked down to see Prince Philip riding his horseback to the Kingdom. Of course the young Prince would not have known the recent events that took place inside the castle. He knew the last thing Maleficent would want to see and deal with was Aurora's boyfriend. his Mistress barely tolerated his presence; however, he also knew Philip that it was likely Philip would be attacked, possibly even killed if he set foot in the Kingdom. Moreso, if the young Queen, the girl he watched grow and looked after as a fletching ever found out that Philip had been attacked and that Diaval did not at least attempt to save him, she would never forgive him.

Cawing, Diaval flew down from the branch and caught up to Philip, gliding right beside him. Philip frowned at him and stopped his horse suddenly realizing who the raven was. "Diaval! What are you doing here?" he asked. Diaval flapped his wings and landed on the back of the horse's neck and looked up at Philip."I'm off to see Aurora, I haven't seen her in months." Diaval cawed in a mood and pointed his wing in the direction of the Moors. "She's in the Moors?" Philip asked and took Diaval's caw as a yes. The raven rolled his eyes. _Of course she's in The Moors, you twit Why else would I be pointing to the Moors?_! he thought.

"Very well." Prince Philip said, turning his horse around and following Diaval into the forest. During the whole ride to Maleficent's home, Diaval couldn't stop thinking about what he was going to say to Maleficent and how they would explain Aurora's current state to Philip. "How is Aurora, well?" Philip yelled out to Diaval who looked back at him questioningly as if to say _How am I supposed to tell you as a raven?_ "Oh, well, of course, you can't talk back. What about a caw for yes?" Diaval wasn't sure what to say, or rather caw. How was he going to explain all that had happened to Aurora as a raven?

"What wrong? You haven't cawed back. Has something happened?" Diaval cawed and saw fear linger on Philip's face. He galloped now, yelling at his horse to run faster and Diaval sped up with Philip. Great. Now, Diaval would have to deal with Maleficent's anger at him bringing Philip to her and also have to inform her of the new 'King.' He just hoped Maleficent wouldn't turn him into a mele worm again, or worse, a dog.

* * *

Maleficent opened her eyes and grew tense. There was the sound in the Moors that wasn't nature and it alerted her. The sun had begun to set and Diaval had not yet returned to her. _Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump._ Hooves. A horse. Someone had come riding into her sacred Moors. Maleficent gently pushed Aurora off of her and immediately took off, flying towards the sounds and ready to attack whatever fool had decided to come riding into the forest. For no more harm would come to her daughter!

The angry dark fey swooped down in fron of the rider, spooking the horse and almost blowing him back from the force of her wings. "Woah, woah!" a familiar voice yelled, calming the scared horse. "Cawwwwww!" Maleficent looked up and saw Diaval flying down in front of her. She waved her hand and the raven turned into a man, black smoke showering him. "Mistress, please! Stay calm!"

"You brought him here?" she growled.

"I had no choice! He was going to go into the castle! He would've been mauled or murdered!"

"Why would I be murdered? What's happened? Where's Aurora?" Philip asked getting off his horse.

"You should have let them," Maleficent said silently, her eyes glowing a bright green. Diaval took a few steps back from Maleficent even though he was feet away from her, but Philip dared to come closer. "Where's Aurora?" Both Diaval and Maleficent shared a look of uncertainty, both not sure what to say. Keeping a straight face, Maleficent looked back to Philip and allowed her wings to stretch up in an intimidating manner. "She is with me." Philip looked confused and worried, he had no idea what was going on. "Well, where is she? Has she been hurt? What's happened to the Kingdom?"

"... she has been attacked." Maleficent said her eyes narrowed.

"What? By who?"

"That, I cannot tell you. I trust Diaval can answer that before I turn him into a dog." she threatened.

"Y-Yes, mistress. Well, it seems to be that the leader of the black market has overthrown the Kingdom. And, in doing so, Aurora has been hurt. They took the throne and cast Aurora out. She fled here to the Moors and came to us in a state." Philip looked down in shock his mouth wide open. His girlfriend- no- his best friend, his soulmate, the love of his life, attacked? Aurora, the sweetest girl he had ever met, hurt? "Who did this?" Philip asked the question that had been lingering on Maleficent's mind for days now.

"Well," Diaval thought to chose his next words carefully, "now, stay calm, but as it turns out, the black market leader has overthrown the Kingdon. Plunged it into chaos." Diaval chose to leave Dutch's name out of for now, as he was sure that if he said who exactly was the leader, Maleficent's rage would take over.

"The black market trade? I didn't realize they were still functioning." Philip said. Diaval looked down in shame and thought, _neither did I_. "Yes, well... Aurora came to the Moors two nights ago. She's been with us ever since, though her state is rather... appalling to say the least." Diaval said.

"Take me to her," Philip demanded, a look of determination on his face. "I need to see her." Diaval looked at Maleficent knowing that she wanted her space. "I won't leave until I see her." the young Prince said. For the first time since Diaval and Maleficent had met Prince Philip, he did not seem nervous or distant in front of Maleficent's presence. Quite the contrary, he was determined to see Aurora and wasn't afraid of Maleficent right now... or, he was just good at hiding his fear from her like Divcal had learned to do. "Fine," Maleficent said after a long while. The three, along with Philip's horse, walked over to Maleficent's large tree and she used her magic to make the branches of the tree longer and swoop down to their feet. Maleficent raised them up to her home. Philip thought it was rather impressive, Maleficent had constructed an entire home out of what must've been the biggest and strongest tree in the Moors.

The dark fairie watched Philip take in her home, or nest as Diaval liked to tease her, and watched his eyes follow to Aurora's figure. The Queen of the Moors was slumped against the trunk of her tree in a deep sleep. Philip stormed over to her and knelt taking her hand in his. "Aurora," he whispered. He ran a hand down her bruised face and studied all her injuries feeling his anger build up. Maleficent watched his every move, adrenaline and magic coursing through her veins. She could feel her maternity side kicking in and wanted to push him out of her tree. "Mistress," Diaval said snapping her out of her dark thoughts. She took a deep breath and relaxed slightly knowing that Philip was one of the last people who would attack Aurora.

"I swear to you," Philip said walking back to Maleficent, "I will murder whoever did this." Maleficent laughed. "You cannot defeat an entire by yourself," she said.

"With my men I can. And I will." Maleficent looked into his eyes and knew his words were genuine. She would never admit it but she did feel a bit of compassion towards Philip after hearing him speak so protectively of Aurora. "It's not your fight. Besides, I have my own army. I have been at war with that Kingdom my whole life. It is personal."

"then, I will stand by you and help you defeat them."

"I do not need your help," she said walking away. Philip looked at Diaval for help and he told him, "Don't worry, she does that all the time."

"I can hear you," Maleficent said.

"Is there anything I can help with?" Philip asked.

"No," Maleficent said quickly, hoping that he'll leave soon. Philip sighed in frustration. He knew that Maleficent loved and cared for Aurora, but didn't she knew that he did too? "I can help take the Kingdom back. My father has an army, we can take them!" Philip said. Maleficent felt annoyed. "I guess I should probably mention that the black market leader also means to set up trades within Ulstead as well, by the way," Diaval interjected, hands on his hips. Maleficent loathed him.

"To Ulstead? My father would have no business with them. Ulstead is a true Kingdom, we're not a city full of savages. If the mean for war, we'll give it to them." Philip said. He felt overwhelmed. Ulstead had just been in a wat with another rival Kingdom, the men were exhausted and overworked. The Kings had been able to come to peace with each other thanks to his father who preferred peace over war. But still, men had hurt Aurora so badly and he wanted someone to suffer. "There will be no war coming to Ulstead. I will defeat them myself." Maleficent said.

"Alone?" Philip asked.

"I told ytou, I have my own army!"

"Yes, but is it big enough?" Maleficent's eyes went green again as she walked over to Philip. "What Philip means to say, Mistress si that he's more than willing to offer his help," Diaval said quietly stepping in between the two before Maleficent lost control. "Back off, back off," he whispered to Philip. There was an awkward moment of silence between the three. Maleficent, quite pleased that the conversation had ended, walked back over to her sick ward. "How are her injuries?" Philip asked.

"She's healing. She has a fever from a slight infection, but she's doing better. We have her some medicine." Diaval told him. Philip silently cursed himself for not knowing how to heal and aid anyone. As a Prince, he would of course never need to know how to heal injuries as there would always be a doctor appointed to the royal family, but he wished he had paid attention to the doctors whenever he had been sick or had gotten injured as a child when playing with his childhood friend Percival. to at least get some kind of an idea of what to do. If he had, he might've been able to do more for Aurora. "I could go to the castle," the Prince said as he looked at Aurora.

"What good would that do?" Maleficent snapped.

"Well, I could have a court with whoever is the new King and find out some more information. Besides, if he means to attack Ulstead and set up illegal trades, I must be ready to inform my father so that we can prepare." Maleficent didn't turn around. "Mistress, that's... actually not a bad idea. I can only do so much in my raven form. Philip might be able to get more information than I could." Diaval added.

"Yes Diaval, I should have known that you would be of less use to me," Maleficent said coldly. There was another awkward moment of silence. Dival decided to keep his mouth shut, lest Maleficent turn him into an insect and step on him if he continued to annoy her, and Philip was unsure if he should leave or not. "So then... I'll go and find the leader then?" Philip asked.

"I guess you should, shame you have to leave so soon," Maleficent said, using her magic to form a bridge out of the branches instantly in a haste to get him to leave. _At least she sounds cheerful for the first time in days at least_, Diaval thought. AS the young Prince turned to climb down the tree, Diaval stopped him. "What is it?"

"As long as you're going to the castle, I feel I should tell you of the new King. His name is Dutch, bit of an idiot, but if he and his men were able to attack Aurora and take down her army in just one night, it's best you be cautious. And remember, if they mean to attack Ulstead they mean to attack you. No pressure," Diaval said, clapping Philip on the back and walking away. Philip felt a trickle of sweat pour down the side of his face and he swallowed. He slowly descended down the bridge and disappeared from sight and the branches magically returned to their original places. "So," Maleficent said finally turning around to face a wide-eyed Diaval. "The leader's name is Dutch?"

"Well, from what I found out."

"What else did you find out?" Maleficent said, striding over to him.

"Not much, just that Dutch has been running the market underground and that the overthrew the Kingdom."

"Humans are so simple-minded. How was a group of underground, outlawed, merchants able to take the Kingdom?"

"Well, I'm sure it didn't help that Aurora got rid of half their weapons and laid off her army. I mean, the Kingdom's army has shrunk since... the last Kings," Diaval said, "It's mostly just a bunch of guards and her personal army and bodyguards. Probably rather easy to take." Maleficent needed to fly. Think about all that had happened and clear her mind. "Diaval, I am going for a flight. Watch Aurora until I return," she said.

"Mistress, going after that man won't help right now. We have to wait a while and gain some more information before we make a move," he said watching her walk to the edge of the nest. "We don't know these men." She didn't look at him. "I know that!" Maleficent said, jumping off and flying away fast into the clouds and out of sight. Diaval looked down when she disappeared from his view and sighed, praying she wasn't going to the castle.

* * *

Philip walked into the warmth of the castle and strode forward. He had been told King Dutch was eager to meet the son of Ulstead and establish peace between the two kingdoms. He could see through the lie, of course, this Dutch would be eager to meet him. Probably to try and gain Ulstead's trust and then betray them when they least expected it. He was grateful that Diaval had told him of Dutch's plans if the news had spread to his father that a Kingdom sought out peace with his Kingdom he would probably give them his finest jewels and a large sum of gold as an offering. Philip waited for half an hour when he first appeared at the gates and asked to see the new King. Of course, some of the maidens had recognized him and seemed anxious upon his return, but he winked at them reassuringly as if silently saying, _I know_. The two knights escorted him to the common rooms where inside sat, King Dutch, on his throne. "My King. Presenting Prince Philip of Ulstead."

"Come forth, dear boy!" Dutch said, standing from his throne and throwing his hands up enthusiastically as if they were old friends. "I should call you a man though, you're hardly a boy!"

"King Dutch. It's a great honor to meet you," Philip said, bowing to the King the way his teachers had taught him in his manner's practice.

"Oh, please you flatter me," Dutch said, bowing back in a clumsy way. Yes, his father would indeed have fallen for this man's charm and manipulative antics. "So, what can I do for you?" King Dutch asked.

"My father sent me to seek peace with the Queen of Ulstead, but I'm embarrassed to say I'm not quite sure what has transpired here," Philip said smiling and raising his eyebrows to match Dutch's comical face. "Yes, well we've had a problem with the previous Queen. She was no good I'm afraid," Dutch sighed shaking his head and looking down somberly, "We had to intervene on her ruling."

"May I ask why that is? I'm only confused, I've heard nothing but praise about Aurora. We were so certain the people in this Kingdom loved her."

"Eh, lies I'm afraid. Couldn't be farther from the truth. She was plunging this Kingdom into chaos. God forbid, if we had been attacked by another Kingdom, we would have been murdered off instantly and easily overthrown. Changes happen, son, I'm sure you understand." He put an arm around Philip and began to lead him out of the room.

"Yes, of course."

Sp, the King of Ulstead sent his son to establish peace between our two Kingdoms?"

"Assuming that you would be willing for peace, yes. I'm only hoping that the change in monarchy hasn't changed our sister Kingdom's mind?"

"Of course not, dear boy! This Kingdom has seen enough bloodshed to last an eternity! The last thing we need right now is another war."

"I'm quite pleased to hear that."

"It will be great for the two of us to get to know each other first. Can you join me for a drink?"

"Absolutely, just as long as my father doesn't find out. He doesn't much like the idea of me drinking, he thinks I'm too young." Philip said smiling up at Dutch

"Haha, no worries, Prince. A drink then, two us both!" The more he got to know Dutch, the less charmed he became. Diaval was right, Dutch was off, even for an illegal smuggler! But he would make sure that the man before him would pay for hurting his Aurora.

* * *

The sun had set by now and the light from the moon shone on a black haired man looking up at the sky. Diaval was worried. Neighter Maleficent or Philip had returned to him yet and it had been a few hours since he last saw them. He put his coat over a shivering Aurora and continued nursing her wounds. Diaval was worried Maleficent had lost her anger finally and attacked Dutch. He could understand her hatred for the man, after all, he too wanted to see him and every other man who had inflicted pain upon Aurora suffer, but now was not the time to go around attacking anyone. He was sure he would've heard the commotion going on from the castle if Maleficent had indeed decided to attack Dutch and his army and the Kingdom was still more quiet than usual so he took that as a good sign. It also wasn't unlike Maleficent to disappear for a while when she flew- sometimes she would disappear for days at a time. But with the threat of King Dutch's plans to take both the Moors and Ulstead, a great amount of anxiety had been placed on his shoulders. He sighed and looked down from the dark sky, closing his eyes. He hated waiting.

"Nghhhhhhh." He instantly snapped his head up and looked at Aurora. The young blonde's face was scrunched up and beads of sweat were breaking out onto her forehead. Just as he reached for the bucket of water, a gust of wind blew past his black hair and swept some of Aurora's locks over her face. Maleficent drifted down and landed softly in the middle of her home. "Mistress," Diaval said standing to greet her.

"How is she?" the brunette asked striding over.

"About the same," he said watching her peer down at Aurora's sleeping form. "Has the boy returned yet?

"Not yet, though I assume within the hour." Maleficent knelt down beside Aurora and stroked her hair. "Diaval, I want you to go and find him. Lead him back here to the Moors."

"Yes, Mistress. Only, what should I do if they've captured him? They do mean to attack his Kingdom, after all, it's not out of the realm of possibility that he's being held prisoner or worse."

"Rejoice and tell Aurora to find a new mate."

"Mistress," Diaval said.

"Oh, don't be so sour Diaval, I was only joking!" He looked at her, his arms crossed. "Fine, partly joking. Be off then." She waved her fingers and turned Diaval into a raven once more. Diaval cawed and flew off into the cool night.

"Pretty bird," Aurora spoke softly.

Maleficent jerked her head down at Aurora and knelt down next to the girl, watching as Aurora's blue eyes fluttered open or rather her right eye since the left was still swollen shut. "Aurora?" Maleficent whispered so as not to frighten her goddaughter. Aurora tried to sit up and felt a massive headache as she did sending her flopping back down into Maleficent's ready arms. "Don't move," she told her, settling her back down.

"Ahhh... what happened to me?" she asked putting a shaky hand over her head.

"You were attacked a few nights ago Beastie, do you remember.?" Maleficent asked feeling her heart race in her chest. "You have been with me ever since."

Aurora snapped her eyes open and her breathing quickened. "The Moors, godmother! T-There's going to be an attack."

"I know, Beastie. I know everything. Do not worry about that now, get some rest." Maleficent said her stomach fluttering at hearing Aurora call her 'godmother,' she hadn't heard Aurora call her that in so long.

"No- Godmother! You don't understand! The Kingdom has been attacked," Aurora said, trying to sit up and stand, fighting against the seething pain. "The prisoners! They've all escaped! And they're trying to take the Moors!"

"Aurora, please! Calm down." Maleficent said softly trying to calm Aurora. "You haven't fully healed."

"No! There isn't any time for that!" Aurora said putting a hand up to her shoulder and pulling her arm close to her. "I have to stop them!" Maleficent, on her knees, helped Aurora sit up and brought her wings around the both of them keeping Aurora from moving anymore. "Beastie, relax. I have already sent Dival to gather information. We know who the King is and that he's planning to attack the Moors. We've been preparing for this. while you were healing."

"Ohhhhhhhhh," Aurora sighed, succumbing to the pain and falling back down in her godmother's arms. Maleficent gently lowered Aurora into her lap. "But, I can't let the Moors fall," Aurora said, tears coming to her eyes. "I-I won't let them be taken." Maleficent shushed her and began to stroke her hair. "Diaval will return soon, Beastie," Maleficent said, using her magic to bring the bucket to her. "Drink this. You must be parched." With Maleficent's, Aurora brought the bucket to her lips and started gulping down the water. not caring that some spilled down her chin and neck. When she was done, she took a great breath and coughed a bit while Maleficent tossed the empty bucket to the side. "How are you feeling, Beastie?" she asked.

"My shoulder hurts so much, godmother," Aurora said closing her eyes feeling tired once again. Maleficent felt her anger rise again and forced it down. She needed to be calm for aurora. "What happened, godmother? I know the Kingdom was attacked and I remember running away, but I don't remember anything that happened after I got lost in the forest."

"A tree warrior found you and brought you to me. Diaval, the pixies and I have been nursing you ever since."

"How long have I been asleep for?"

"Two days, almost three," Maleficent replied. Aurora opened her right eye in shock. "Oh."

"Do not be ashamed, Beastie. I will not let any harm come to you," Maleficent promised. "Sleep now, Aurora. I will be when you wake again." Aurora shook her head, half awake half asleep already. The young Queen felt her body aching all over, could feel her blood running through her and slowly drifted off to sleep again. Maleficent could hear hooves in the distance and knew Philip and Diaval had returned. She again used her magic to form a bridge up to her home so that Philip could climb up to her and report to her. Philip appeared out of breath and Diaval flew up cawing and Maleficent turned him into a man again admiring the black shadow of smoke that surrounded him as he turned. "Mistress."

"How's Aurora?" Philip asked.

"Healing. What did you find?" Maleficent asked.

"An absolute nutcase," Philip responded making Diaval laugh.

"What? He is!" Diaval said at seeing Maleficent's blank face.

"He's insane! I'm not quite sure if that man has a conscious or not."

"Indeed. He's almost as crazy since Stephan!" Diaval said.

"Wel, I'm glad you two have successfully diagnosed him, but did you find out exactly what he plans to do next?" Maleficent said throwing daggers at the two.

"Sort of," Philip responded, scratching the back of his head. "I know he set a bunch of prisoners free. I guess that's where his men had been incarcerated. That's how they were able to take the castle and with the limited guards watching the prison it was easy for them to do so."

"How did a bunch of illegal traders manage to overthrow an entire Kingdom overnight? Aren't these men supposed to be elite warriors?" Diaval asked.

"Yes, I wondered that as well. Dutch's army would have no chance against the knights, except for a few royal guards, maybe. Dutch didn't tell me any of this, but as I was leaving the castle, I ran into one of the maidens that I recognized. She told me all that she had learned from listening to the black market members. Bunch of loudmouths in the castle, but as it turns out, the knights aurora laid off helped him to overthrow the Kingdom, or at least a good amount did. Enough of them to take the Kingdom, at least. I surmise they've been helping Dutch ever since they left the castle. The knights that have remained loyal to the Old King, the one before Stephan and a few of Stephan's knights don't believe in Aurora's ruling. They wanted to revolt against her. And Ulstead, along with the Moors for that matter. They want war." Philip said.

Diaval and Maleficent looked at each other and back down at Aurora lost in their own thoughts. For a while, no one said anything all pondering about everything that had transpired and said. Diaval finally broke the silence and asked, "What do we do next, Mistress?" Maleficent looked down at Aurora and thought. "did you find out what his next plans are?" she asked.

"No. All we spoke of was a possible peace treaty between our lands but I know he's going to try to take Ulstead."

Maleficent knew Dutch wouldn't try to overthrow Ulstead until the King and Queen fully trusted him, and that could take a long time. It was more likely that he would try to take the Moors first. Dutch underestimated the Moors powers. "He will attack the Moors first. As stupid as this new King sounds, I do not believe he is foolish enough to start a war with a Kingdom he knows nothing about until the King and Queen fully trust them," she spoke.

"What should we do in the meantime, Mistress?" Diaval asked.

"We will wait for him to make a move. I will have the guardians increase their watch on the Moors from the and we will have them guard the entrances of the Moors from the Kingdom."

"What about that wall of thorns you pout up last time? Wouldn't that make for better security than the tree guardians?" Philip asked.

"If the wall is set up he will know that we know that he will attack us."

"Makes sense," Diaval said sarcastically. If Maleficent heard the tone of his voice she chose to ignore it. "So we just... wait for them to attack then?"

"What do you mean we?" Maleficent asked.

"It might be a good idea for you to return to your father and inform him of all this. If there is a threat to Ulstead, the King should know about it." diaval said trying to once again ease the tension.

"I agree," Maleficent said immediately.

"Well, what about Aurora? What if she wakes up?" Philip asked. Maleficent could feel Diaval's beady eyes on her and knew what he was thinking, '_He has a right to know. Aurora would want him to know.'_ She closed her eyes and sighed nodding her head. "I'm sure she'll write to you when she wakes." Philip looked like he wanted to stay and protect her until Aurora woke up, but Maleficent stretched her wings out a bit and shot him a threatening look. He decided it was best to just take this as a win and leave, it was probably the best he was going to get. Philip said goodbye to Diaval and Maleficent and climbed down the tree and disappeared from sight.

Diaval left Maleficent to nestle Aurora deciding it best to not say anything until Maleficent did. Few were very protective of their families and would turn ferocious when they felt their families were threatened. He knew Philip had Aurora's best interests at heart but Maleficent couldn't see that right now and he was sure she was quite annoyed at the boy for invading her home, even if his intentions had been good. Dark Fey were unlike any Moor creature Diaval had come across in that they were very passionate and caring but wouldn't hesitate to attack anyone they saw as a threat. He did not want to annoy her any more than she already was. Maleficent could feel Diaval's unease and anxiety as she used her magic to untangle Aurora's messy hair.

"What?" she finally said breaking the silence.

"Nothing... it's just that... I don't know. It's been, ya know, a lot." he said. Maleficent agreed, it had been a lot in such a short amount of time. The brunette turned away from Aurora and looked at her Raven. "She did wake up, but only for a moment."

"Really?" Diaval asked surprised, "What did she say?"

"When you left to find the boy, she heard you cawing. She said pretty bird." Diaval let out a half chuckle half sigh and smiled. "Oh, that's..." he couldn't find the right words.

"I know," she said. Diaval didn't need to say anything, they both understood how much it had meant to the raven/man.

"She needs more water," Diaval said, spotting the empty bucket. "I'll get her some." Diaval took the bucket and climbed down the tree. Maleficent left the bridge up for Diaval to climb back into her home and when he returned, which she suspected may be a while.

She looked back over to her goddaughter and walked over to her, scooping her up in her arms and lying down with Aurora sleeping soundlessly against her chest again. Maleficent stroked Aurora's hair again and kissed her daughter's forehead. "Goodnight Beastie." She felt her stomach jump as Auror nestled in closer to her after she said goodnight and smiled down at the young woman.

* * *

Thanks for reading my story and sticking with me, I know it's been a minute since I updated. My dog ended up getting sick and we're probably going to have to put her down so that's why I haven't been uploading as much, that and school starting up again. Thank you to all who commented, I cannot tell you how much joy it brings me when I read them, especially now. I don't know when I will next upload but I promise you I will finish the story- on my dead grandma's grave. lol i should say my dead dog's graveXD hahahaha everythinghurtslol. sorry, i use dark humor to deflect my sadness, i'm okay though i promise. Please let me know what you think of my story so far! Love you all!

~Gryffindor 3


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